Do you give as much as you take?

Humans have an innate connection to nature, whether we accept it or not; we belong to a perfect ecosystem.

Some of us make a conscious effort to live sustainably, seeking peace and harmony with our environment. Others simply exist, consuming oxygen and depleting natural resources without ever giving anything back.

This week, I visited some quarries to source stones for a project. Seeing those naked landscapes and carved mountain tops left me silently wondering about our impact on Mother Nature from a different perspective. This perspective brings us to two ways of seeing things:

First Realisation: To Be Aware

We recognize that our lifestyles depend on raw materials for furniture, clothing, buildings, and infrastructure. We understand that extraction destroys habitats, pollutes air, oceans, and soil, and disrupts ecosystems, leaving scars behind. Knowing this, we choose to live sustainably and give back. This means consuming less, recycling more, cultivating, reforesting, and using recycled and recyclable materials. We choose sustainable alternatives for the products and services we consume daily and make the effort to research new ways to minimize our negative impact. We may never refill the holes we’ve created, but we can balance the damage through daily conscious actions.

Second Realisation: To Be Indifferent

Worse than being an active destroyer is ignoring that you are effectively one and that your actions (big or small) have an immense impact on the rest of the ecosystem. It is to choose to ignore your impact. You continue to live a mediocre, meaningless life, constantly taking without regard for the weight of your actions. You see the problem, hear the solutions, yet choose to look away. You turn inward, feeding your selfishness, believing your comfort matters more than the planet’s well-being. You remain blind, deaf, and mute to the wounds inflicted and the need for stewardship towards Mother Nature.

Notice how I use the word 'choose' multiple times in the text. This emphasizes that sustainability is indeed a choice. You choose to destroy, but you can also choose to rebuild. You choose to cut, but you can choose to replant. Sustainability is only true if there is a cyclic character of returning back to Nature one way or another.

So… what do you choose?

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Written by Lucas Cruz Bueno