Ethnobotanical
An ethnobotanical culture is
helping science and nature come to an understanding. Science has achieved so
much, in so little time that it's remarkable success left us in awe. But such a
speedy development had a high cost, today we see pollution everywhere, and the
growth is simply unsustainable. We erode cultivation fields ten times faster
that we are able to produce new ones. Nature's resources have a limit, and we
have exceeded them.
Ethnobotanical culture is making us understand the way "primitive" people think,
and in many ways they have been much wiser than us. We are ending with nature's
diversity in plants, animals, insects. Cures for untreatable illnesses are being
used by many tribes, but the depletion of habitat and the way we are forcing
them to incorporate into our way of life are endangering the rescue of such
treasures.
If we do not make the rest of the world see the importance of this balance, if
we do not live in harmony with nature, ethnobotanical study will only be able to
show us that we had the cure for cancer in our hands, but we destroyed the
natives that could provide it to the world.
Ethnobotanical practices have led to the interaction with many fields, ecologist
work closely together to achieve a common purpose. We have lost ourselves in the
useless search for commodities, and it has been the "civilized" men who have
done all the horrors and all the destruction in the name of progress. The
outcome has been an endangered planet, we have been able to hurt the planet as
no other species in the history of earth, in merely 50 years the ozone layer has
been thinned to levels where sunlight has become harmful. Temperature in the
world has already risen two degrees, polar caskets are beginning to melt, maybe
we have gone too far this time, and there will be no way of turning things
around. We have turned water poisonous and many rivers kill fish and animals
that are thirsty and drink such filth. Everyday we loose more and more forests,
the lungs of the planet are being damaged beyond repair. All the richness in
those areas, where healing plants are most abundant are being lost forever.
It is time to fight this insanity, we have to join these "primitive" people, ask
their forgiveness for our stupidity and try to use technology to revert what we
have done. Every day, more and more trash is produced, the solution of burring
it is suicidal, and the effect we are creating in the natural areas where trash
is hidden is changing the composition of plants, the nutrients absorbed are
making normal plants poisonous for animals and man alike. There is nothing more
valuable that the preservation of these cultures and their habitats, we must
defend them and support the cause in any way we can.
|
