The Walrus- Extraction

Text by Edward Burtynsky published in The Walrus. Comments first. I think it's pretty interesting.


I have, like the author, been a witness to Earth and nature's vastness, and also to the impact of man. When our ragtag crew of untrained high school graduates sailed away from Dakar, Agadir, or some other industrial port whose name escapes me, I saw the smokestacks shrinking in the distance, and empty skies all around and above us, I realized the true vastness of our earth, and how small and insignificant that smokestack may have seen to us humans in the past. But with modern knowledge of the earth's situation, I can appreciate that like our slow-moving ship, that smokestack works continuously, night and day shooting toxic gases into our seemingly unaffected atmosphere. After years and years of continuous operation, that one smokestack would have produced enourmous quantities of waste air, just like our ship would have traveled insanely great distances.

The question, then more comments, perhaps;

I would ask this to humanity as a whole, not to incite action, or the desire to act - desire to act usually becomes desire to act, and nothing more. How much worse, do you think, will things get before they get better?

Burtynsky's final comment about extraction of truth is also interesting: To the world's polluting corporations's billionaires: How much more must you make before understanding that it is not your grandchildren, or your children who will suffer from your actions, but you?

We are already suffering, as if from a flood: the poor get hit first, and worst, but it is not long until even the wealthiest can no longer pretend not to be affected. We are so eager to point the finger, all of us, to the faults of others (Burtynsky notes that "while much has been... said about the Brazilians hacking away at their precious resource, little is said... or even known about our own.") It is the oil companies' fault, the governments' fault, humanity's fault; never our own, never us, never me. "I'm just a tiny human, no matter how much recycling I make, or how much gas I try to save, it'll never change anything. I'm just a small human, It's not me who's doing all that pollution, it's not my fault, or my responsibility, and I couldn't do anything to our huge planet even if I tried.

Just like the smokestack, right?