Before I commence writing my blog entry, I would like to show you a part of a Chief Seattle's speech on March 11, 1854. This speech relates to E.O Wilson's Ted about how the web of life is being destroyed."You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin.
Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.
This we know: The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know.
All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.
Man did not weave the web of life: he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."
This is a part of Chief Seattle's speech that was given on March 11, 1854.
According to E.O. Wilson, enormous amount of species are disappearing and most of them are unknown to us. In the future, our natural world may be in danger, and it will definitely affect us. Things will be unstable, including us. Maybe the law Ishmael refers to its diversity. The diversity of life is vital to nature because all things are connected. Just like the society Ishmael describes, A's, B's and C's, none of them can live without one another. An unknown organism might be crucial to our existence, we just don't know.
Chief Seatle said in his speech, man did not create the web of life, man is just a part of the web. If a string is cut off, the entire web might collapse. E.O. Wilson's proposal of a Encyclopedia of Life will make all key informations of life accessible. Understanding all the species has one most significant purpose, to preserve our biosphere, the web of life. If we're able to understand them, then we might be able to manage them and fix the problems we're causing in biosphere. We should recognize the importance of diversity. What we do to the web will come back to us. "Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."
5 comments:
I really liked how you incorporated Chief Seattle's speech into this! And I think the law that Ishmael refers to could be something about diversity too, or maybe interconnectedness. Everything has its place in the world.. Man is only a small part of this world.
I liked how you said that man did not create the web... I think man would be vain enough to think that we did. I also agree with what you said about what we do to the web comes back to us.
I like that thought, that whatever we do to the web, will be done to us.
Except, if we listen to Ishmael, it will probably end up being much much worse as we accelerate at the rate of 9.8m/s!
Chief Seattle rules, he said it all, man belongs to the earth. We think we have it under our control, but we don't, there are many things we don't know and will never know. We evolved on earth, and so we are part of the earth, and whatever we do, it's only hurting ourselves.
Good. During Elizabethan times, there was a theory called the Chain of Being: organisms were arranged based on how close they were to the hell or the heavens. Google it; it reminds me of your comments. Edmund Tillyard, the Elizabethan chain of being. Please edit your prose a little more carefully.
Was the Chief Seattle's speech part of the school work or your individual research?! It is cool how you brought up other resources to support your ideas.
Everything in the Chief Seattle's speech is crucial, nonetheless it will be one of the hardest thing for humans to accept and change for it.
Just like what Kassy and you pointed out, the system of A's, B's and C's can represent the interconnectedness of the diversity we have in this world, and how we rely on one another. Moreover, i think the A's, B's and C's system Ishmael presented is actually the fundamental system that has been adopted by all other organisms except humans. It's like a cycle of food chain where everybody is the contributor. Nonetheless, humans invented this new concept and system where humans are at the top and all other species are just supplements and not as important.
Max mentioned that if humans can find the balance, it would help all lives on Earth, including humans.
Post a Comment