By LaVonna Varnado-Brown
Writer Nikita Gill states that, “We have calcium in our bones, iron in our veins, carbon in our souls, and nitrogen in our brains.” Composed of the stuff of stars, we see patterns and designs replicated in the human body and in organisms and creatures in nature. We are all connected. We must prioritize our deep connection to all inhabitants of the earth before it’s too late.
According to a recently released report, nearly one million species risk becoming extinct within decades, while current efforts to conserve the earth’s lifeforms will likely fail without radical action. On at-risk fauna and flora, the study asserts that human activities “threaten more species now than ever before” – a finding based on the fact that around 25 percent of species in plant and animal groups are vulnerable.
What is radical action? They want us to believe that use of paper straws and hemp grocery bags will make a difference, but the real difference can only come once the masses force the mammoth capitalist industries and the military to end their greedy tactics. This would greatly impact the health of the Earth. The U.S. military admits to using 395,000 barrels of oil per day. The coral reefs are dying. Nature is becoming overwhelmed by our never-ending output of poisonous waste matter. “Marine plastic pollution in particular has increased tenfold since 1980, affecting at least 267 species”, the report says, including 86 percent of marine turtles, 44 percent of seabirds and 43 percent of marine mammals.
Those effects do not end within the habitats of those species. We all coexist. There is no “my air, your dirt.” It is our water. We must realign to acknowledge this truth. During a speech at Morgan State in 1967, Kwame Ture quoted the poet John Donne: “the death of any man diminishes me because I am involved in mankind”. We must see it as our duty to get involved. We must not allow the capitalist ruling class to kill everything and anything that gets in their way. We must not fall into rank with the machine—no, we must organize ourselves to dismantle the capitalist apparatus and become active members in cultivating the society we know should already be.