Will it ever be found again?

I got into the rainforest late Tuesday afternoon. Drove just a few short miles out of town, parked alongside an old scenic route, and followed a muddy trail down into a deeply forested gulch which eventually terminated at the rugged shore of the roaring ocean. I can leave it all behind here and immerse myself in raw, wild nature as easily as where I moved from, and that must be one of the many reasons I treasure this place so. As there was of course no one around I felt free to be a naturist as I wandered about the lush foliage and took a dip in a cool cascading stream. The waves rolled in to meet its mouth, mixing in slightly warmer salt water. All that could be heard was the tranquil clamoring of the sea amidst the relentless birdsong in the heavy canopy above.

When I noticed a couple of ancient automobile carcasses dumped over the side of the cliff and overrun by ferns, moss, and other vegetation, I began to dwell on something. Why has humanity become so detached from nature? How could it have so largely lost its reverence and respect for other species than its own in mere centuries? How can a person think absolutely nothing of backing up to the edge of a cliff and dumping a large crate of used car batteries into a river? Has our species become so mechanical, machinelike, and insensitive to the rest of the world that so many of us will gladly do such things in the interests of efficiency, profit, and the advancement of mankind? Apparently. As far as the triforce is concerned, humanity has most of the power in this world, and it definitely has courage (unprecedented gaul), but wisdom is the one thing that it will probably never learn how to steal from other animals. Humanity has intelligence, sure, but wisdom? Not much.

One of the hottest trends these days is "going green." I see it everywhere. Corporations are going green, consumers are going green, wise little Martian men have already gone green a long time ago. Obviously, we have finally begun to recognize the threat we pose to ourselves. It's not that anyone with any real power gives a damn about wolves or polar bears or spotted owls, and why should they? The reason they're in power is because they appealed to the people and promised helping humanity toward a better future, not because they went out and physically stood in the way of the forcible slaughter of 100,000 tortoises. Wouldn't affect them any either way. It's all just a grand ol' play. The latest Bush just so happened to weave it into a seemingly irrerversible tragedy.

But who cares, we're the dominant ones, and we have the power. The world belongs to us, right? Fuck anyone or anything that can't compete. Must exterminate. Must control. Must consume far more than necessary.

What else saddens me is observing how few people seem to appreciate the majesty of nature anymore. They resemble cattle in feedlots, pushing each other along in massive droves as they dip their noses into the grain, completely oblivious to the spectacular rainbow that stretches across the sky right above their heads. Just going about their business, from point Abattoir to point Butcher, with what appears to be little to no capacity to pause and appreciate all the beauty in the world, if only for a second. If life's finish line is death, what's the point of racing through it all the time?