Like many people gravitate towards the beach, I find grounding and stillness in the forest. It is because of this that I used the Amazon Rainforest as the topic for one of my university philosophy essays. I won’t ask you to read through 4000 words of jargon and in-text references, but I want to offer the main argument that I was trying to make. Let's talk about this.
The Enlightenment has had a great impact on the relationship between us humans and the natural environment, due to our technological advancement. While I know that there is great value to be found in this scientific approach to the world, I think that it is dangerous to allow this to be the only approach which we acknowledge. Just like the triple bottom line has been introduced into business, I think that we need to revisit the way in which we view progress in all spheres, including the scientific and economic ones.
I have said this for a while, but am more passionate about it since briefly researching a couple of tribes that are known to live in the Amazon Rainforest. Due to the rapid deforestation happening in the Amazon, the lives of the Yanomami and Yuqui tribes have been disrupted. They have suffered to the point where 15% of these tribes have been killed. This is mainly due to certain corporations and powerful individuals having found more economically rewarding ways to use the land, one being the farming of cattle. Therefore, the land was taken over and the tribes were ‘resettled’, resulting in entirely new surroundings and them having lost their history. This ten-thousand-year culture- shock lead to despair within the tribes and “the first known suicides in [their] history” (Wiessner, 1999: 77).
This is terrible in its own right, but there is something even worse about it that not only affects me, but you as well. There may be economic benefits to deforestation, but I am convinced that it doesn't out way what we are losing. In this act of mass deforestation and driving these kinds of tribes and communities to extinction, we are losing what I feel may be vital knowledge, for not only our present world, but the future. The simple fact that 25% of cancer fighting organisms can be found in the Amazon should already tell you a lot - Deforestation facts. These tribes have lived and survived thousands of years and I think it would be ignorant to say that they have nothing to teach us, more technologically driven societies. They could (and I want to say, most likely do) have answers, skills and understanding that could greatly benefit us. We don’t even know what we could be losing!
Bibliography:
https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/various-deforestation-facts.php
Newton, L and Dillingham, C. 1996. Diversity in the Trees. In: Watersheds 2. California: Wadsworth Publishing, p. 55-71.
Wiessner, S. 1999. Rights and Status of Indigenous Peoples: A Global Comparative and International Legal Analysis. Harvard Human Rights Journal, 12(1): 57-128.
