I am gazing out to the Mediterranean. This last week we have seen unusually rough seas with massive waves crashing on the rocks 50 meters from my front door. Salt spray covers the house, the plants, the car, everything. I then turn to gaze at the mountains behind with their barren north faces showing the sheer walls left by huge blocks of rock breaking off and falling to the sea. In fact, my house rests on what was once part of the mountain behind.
In this place, which is now referred to in tourist literature as, “Between the Mountains and the Sea,” one gains a profound understanding of how the earth changes over the centuries, nay, over the millions of years. I realize that this marvelous place, surrounded by the largest nature park in Mallorca, will one day be much different. I know that my house will one day be gone leaving little more than the remnants left by the 4000 year old burrial chamber recently discovered 500 meters away. And one day all be under the rest of the mountain when it crumbles away. No, the sea may try to claim it, but the mountains will win.
All this makes me reflect once more on the hubris of those who would try to keep the world as it is. Conservationists now morphed into environmentalists lack the proper perspective. The mountains will fall and erupt again, the seas will rise and then fall, the ice will melt and then grow again, species will become extinct and new ones will evolve, and man will evolve. No, we cannot keep what we see and sense as it is. We can guide the changes somewhat, but mere mortals have little power when matched against mountains and sea.
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how i love the mediterranean. and how polluted it was so very recently before awareness, campaigning, and clean up by those hubristic conservationists and environmentalists!
Mishelle
As a resident of the Mediterranean I was directly involved in cleaning it up. My first thought was how do we clean up a whole sea? Well we didn´t clean the whole sea, we cleaned the shore. We eliminated or pushed the pollutants further out into the sea where they did not wash up on the shore. We cleaned the waters near the shore as well. And it worked, I now walk the shore and see no flotsam and jetsom on the shore. There are few sea nettles which are a sure sign of dirty water. My point is that one should undertake reasonable goals that can be accomplished. And we should always understand that there are larger forces involved in determining the earth´s future than mere mortals.
love to hear it leo! i knew you were an enviromentalist at heart! since we mere mortals used our power to screw it up in the first place maybe it just feels good to try to make ammends?