Saving our societal system ... or saving our planet? That is the question.

I recently went to a fabulous exposition of horticultural arts from around the world called the Mosaicultures Internationale Montreal.

There were just so many breath taking sculptures, the most amazing aspect of this exhibition is that all the sculptures were made of living plants! Some even had water falls, background music and different type of environment to enhance the experience. The exposition is named "The Land of Hope" and all the artworks revolve around a common theme: awareness of biodiversity and the vital need to preserve it.

Here are two of my favourites:

"Hachiko, the Loyal Dog"

This sculpture was created to represent the sector of Shibuya in Japan. It was inspired by the real story of a dog, called Hachiko, who was the most devoted dog of all time. He would wait for his master everyday at the train station, at the same time, for him to come back from work. However, one day, the owner had a sudden accident at work and died before reaching a hospital. The same day, Hachiko waited at the train station, but his master did not arrive. Unaware of his master death, he waited and waited years at the same train station for him to come home. It was told that Hachiko waited for his master right until himself died of starvation or cold weather.
There were so many movies about Hachiko, Japanese as well as American. I believe that this dog's unshakable loyalty has captured the hearts of both Eastern and Western's people.
This loyalty might also be a metaphor for nature's abundance. Our Earth is giving so much to humanity; wood to build houses, soil to plant on, water to give life... However, we, humans, cannot even pay back the equivalent of a penny to our Earth. Similarly to Hachiko's story, he gave all his time to his master, unfortunately, the man was not able to give back all the affection his dog gave him. As humans, we are so self-centred and uncaring to our most important partner; nature itself. We always want more and more without expecting to contribute the equivalent.

"Mother Earth"

One of my ultimate favourite sculpture would be "Mother earth". The size of this artwork is astonishing and almost overwhelming. Just to give you an idea, her bust is nearly 15 meters tall! There was some soft and relaxing background music and adding the sound of the water falling from her hand, it gave a sense of majestically serenity.
This sculpture was inspired by the North American Aboriginal culture and here is an excerpt of a speech that Chef Seattle expressed in front of Franklin Pierce, President of the United States in 1854 during a conference on the purchase of Native land by white settlers.

We are part of the Earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters, the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man, all belong to the same family. [...] (Official Album of MIM 2013)

This sculpture is a representation of the Native's perception of nature; that it is considered as something that cannot be separated from mankind. They believe that we make one with our environment and destroying it would like killing a part of us.

It is very fascinating to see how differently cultures from around the world perceive their relationship with their environment. For instance, Japan seems to be very mindful of their natural resources. It was in Japan that the Kyoto Protocol was adopted by multiple countries. Japanese always have new technology and revolutionary ideas concerning the protection of our fragile ecosystem and biodiversity.
I think that their thrive and determination to reduce their ecological footprint could have been influenced by their geographical situation. Being situated on a small island and surrounded by water could have inherently caused the Japanese to be always conscious of their available resources. Land being scarce, they would have to be more attentive their their environment in order to produce enough food/clothing to survive.
On the other hand, us, North Americans, do not have this natural limitation. Our land is vast and fertile, thus we can have food and other living essentials (and non-essentials) in abundance. Therefore, I believe that we lost this connection with our natural environment and resulting in a neglectful over-exploitation of our resources.

I also came across a short interview of Michel Freitag, a famous sociologist and philosopher in Montreal, who talked about the globalisation of our economy and its devastating effects on our planet's health.
Here's the link for the clip: Second Regard (unfortunately it is in French and I could not find any version with English subtitles)
Freitag wrote a lot about the globalisation phenomena and its influence over our society and environment. He is stating that the world has lost the chance to turn back and change its fate; we are slowly destroying ourselves. He strongly believes that what is endangering our survival is simply our economical system and more specifically globalization. Demands are increasing more and more, to keep up with it, we will produce more and more. If our natural resources do not permit us to produce at the rate that we want, we will just use the resources of other countries. Globalization just accelerated this never-ending demand-supply infernal spiral. Freitag was saying that since our economy is now depend of globalization, and if we decided, for the good of the Earth, to stop those international supply trading, our economy will instantly crash, causing so many devastating social consequences. He declared that mankind had two choices: either to end everything that could harm our environment regardless of its effects on our society... or continue our economical practices without thinking of effects on nature and our planet's survival. It seems that we chose the latest. Our planet is slowly dying because of our decision.