Different segments of the “dominant” culture are now starting to feel and realize what native people have been saying for generations. I don’t want to say, “Told you so,” but we told you so.
People are starting to feel the effects of near-sighted and foolish “mismanagement” of the environment. Look at Newfoundland with its fishery or lack thereof, people in the Abitibi and Gaspe regions with the lack of timber, Ontario with the polluted Great Lakes and acid rain, B.C. with the clearcutting issue and fish wars with the Americans.
These regions are starting to cry out for help. They are feeling lost. They are feeling a sense of loss because they know what they lost or are losing. Unfortunately they only find out after it’s too late. The fish stocks will come back, the trees will come back, the water will cleanse itself, but you must give them a chance.
After so many years of taking the earth and its resources for granted, we are only now starting to pay for negligence, the negligence of allowing short-sighted and money-hungry individuals and corporations to “manage” the earth. Look at what’s happening around us. We now have to pay for drinking water. “Green space” is now at a premium. Everybody is now fighting over it. Fishermen are now trying to catch all the fish they can so the others don’t get them. Forests are being cut down so the others don’t get them.
There is a catch-22 we have to get out of. One side says they have to cut to feed their children. Then the other side says if it’s cut they can’t feed their children. Both sides have to feed their children. But is cutting and catching everything now the right way to feed our children? What will we leave for our grandchildren?
The people in the outlying regions of the “dominant” culture are now joining the chorus of concerned people who want to save what’s left. The native people of different nations have been voicing concerns about the environment fora long time now to no avail. Nobody seemed to be listening. With these new voices sounding the alarm, will anybody listen?
