There are around 1.9 million types of animals on the planet. 1.88 million of them are spineless. In 2015 there have been 77340 animals and plants on the Red List of the IUCN – the International Union for Conservation of Nature. We are right in the middle of the sixth major mass extinction. Earth has witnessed five, when more than 75% of species disappeared.

Climate change kept its promise in 2018. Global temperatures for the first five months of the year have been the highest on record for a La Niña year, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports the World Meteorological Organisation. May 2018 was the fourth warmest May on record, the 42nd consecutive May and the 401st consecutive month above the 20th century average.

Looking into world politics we can watch the rise of single leaders. Many of them want to see their countries strong again. Maybe it’s the wish of many of their citizens as well “to finally become someone again”. The democratic systems are challenged. So far most of them passed the test. Only in a few countries you might want to question the notion of “democracy”. Looking at the actions of their political leaders it might be more truthful to speak of dicatorships.

Money and consumption are the gods of the modern world. Being asked to close the advertisment blocker while visiting a website tells me a lot about how this octopus of consumption tries to reach my attention. In many sectors of society it’s obvious that decisions are being made because of business interest. Secondly there is a great need to meet the shareholder demands as well.

Since years we are exploiting nature. There is an endless greed for earth’s resources and people seem to be powerless to act against this behaviour. There is a gigantic, economic machinery operating to fight for the best monopoles. The main goal is gaining profit and to produce goods as cheap as possible. Life and creation do not have any rights in this calculation.

I see the image of the RMS Titanic in front of my eyes. The famous British passenger liner sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early hours of 15 April 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. The captain did not reduce the speed of the ship even when there were many ice warnings from other ships being reported. Together with the steam turbine the overall output was 51.000 hp. Why do we still keep the engines of our modern society consciously or unconsciously on maximum speed? Don’t we know the risk of our actions for future generations? Are we playing with nature? Do we really think that we can’t sink? Do we believe that we’ve already won the fight against the adversities of nature?

In the movie “The Matrix” Agent Smith builds on this thought concluding that humanity behaves like a virus. It spreads over the planet without respecting its environment:

I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment. But you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area.

Smith from the movie “The Matrix”

There is much to discuss. Soon there will be actions needed. Maybe it’s not so much about decisions being made by our politicians or some sort of organisations that matter in the end. It might be time to consider every single citizen on earth as a potential decision maker. It’s about the way she acts in her community that matters.