Indifference to the ecological consequences of our actions

Everyone is divided between concern not to harm the environment, and concern for their own interests. Individual forces are found as a sort of integral, or summation, at the level of all humanity. The balance between the two opposing forces will determine the future of the planet.

It is therefore urgent to question the content of these two trends. For example, many campers or picnicrs leave their garbage in the middle of nature, in perfect indifference. It is clear, however, that the future users of the place will find it deflowered and that this is causing them some damage. It is surprising that after all the media campaigns that have popularized the desire for cleanliness, the process continues to a great extent.

Two things one: either it is an indifference to the cleanliness and beauty of nature. Or a sadistic enjoyment to harm others and the natural environment. The two attitudes can also be combined: anyone who is indifferent to nature may very much be angry with the person who respects it, for example if the respect shown by others makes him feel too lazy to take away his waste.

Indifference could also hide a certain fear, even hatred of nature, that Shepard would gladly relate to the advent of agriculture and the image of a wild world suddenly becoming destructive. The peasant fears storms and floods, the pastor assaults wild animals against his flock. The forest that was once the mother nurse turned into a place of danger and perdition. The traces of these transformations that we would still carry in our unconscious seem however tenuous.

Whatever they are, the determining factors are psychological. If we want to understand the process, we must go back to the root causes of defective behaviour. It is at this level that a general awareness could change the situation…