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There is little doubt man has to think twice about Mother Earth. We cannot afford to ignore the lifesaving resources nature offers. Most countries and their peoples agree we must stop polluting earth and space. To put toxins in our common ground and perforate the ozone layer is not the key to our species' success. In fact, the human race is on the endangered-specieslist .
So, what do we do? Well, except starting to save what is left and disinfect the wounds we have already made, we must gain access to existing knowledge of how nature actually works. We must learn to be constructive instead of destructive .
In the estimated 15,000 cultures remaining on earth we would find, if we only made an effort to look for it, an enormous trove of wisdom. Indigenous peoples have, over the ages, developed technologies of farming, housekeeping and curing illness. They know how to make a living of the forests without destroying them, they have explored the medicinal properties of plants, they know how to build a home that lasts. In other words, they know how to maintain the all-embracing ecological balance in nature. Unfortunately, this wisdom and expertise is vanishing as the world's tribes are dying out or being absorbed into modern civilization .
It is a great danger to ourselves if we continue to consider indigenous peoples and their environment as a museum. We must stop being sentimental when it comes to ecology. This is the major problem in the question of how to save our world. Developed nations try to authorize living in the Amazon for example, by telling governments not to allow logging, mining or hunting. The West has used its resources to become rich, and expects the rest of the world to live in poverty, so that tourists will have something nice to look at when they escape smog and dirt. But the peoples of the Amazon and other comparatively untouched places, know how to develop the land while conserving it. If only done properly, mining and timbering cause little destruction to the environment but bring lots of revenue to the state they live in. The same with hunting. Hunting seasons is a must to control populations of certain animals, or they become a threat to other ecological niches. It is not only nature environmental groups defend when they accuse the governments of Brazil or Peru of torching the Amazon. Above all, hopefully without knowing it, they defend economic interests of the developed nations. The Third World nations who try to cut a piece of the cake by exploring their resources at a low cost are thoroughly prevented to do so .
So, the final solution may well be to let such countries develop their land by using existing knowledge of nature and its riches. That way tribes and indigenous peoples are likely to survive as the younger generations will find it worthwhile to stay in their original surroundings. And thus, the enormous reservoir of human expertise on how to be a part of nature, in harmony with flora and fauna, will not run dry. Then the rest of the human race will still have something to learn from .
