Nature; what once dominated our planet’s landscapes now reaches graceful, leafy limbs into all aspects of our human world. Economy, politics, religion, ethics; they all bear one thing in common- conservation. In some cases, a lack thereof, but nevertheless, it binds them. And, through libraries of information, statistics open to interpretation, heated debates and abundant false assumptions, you come up with one, burning question at the center of it all: Is it hopeless? Is the damage we’ve done irrevocable, are we doomed to decline into a world of noxious gases and murky brown landscapes? Until the bitter end, I will repeat; no, no and no.

My most basic belief is that while you can fight any tide for a time, it will eventually whisk you away. Nature’s force always conquers; tides are perpetually chipping down at whatever stone and metal we place in its path. You can’t fight the tide forever. So what does this mean? It may seem pessimistic and a stark contrast to my previous statements, but it’s not. We cannot fight the tide; we must change it. Human beings are fundamentally incredible creatures; we’ve walked on the moon, developed mind-boggling technologies, plumbed the secrets of the universe and, somehow, managed through these thousands of years managed not to kill each other off altogether. We can love and believe and create, even when free will tempts us to hate and doubt and destroy. Throughout history, we have fought for what we believe in. Revolutions and uprisings through the centuries have all been fueled by a firm conviction of what is right. If we, the six billion humans of the Earth, saw nature as a treasure of our lives to be whole-heartedly embraced, I believe we would go to any lengths to protect it. But as of today, we see it as a fragile, frightening mystery; we want to freeze it, and wrap it up in barbed wire and steel; and, seeing that it is safe, turn away with a sigh and return to our lives. In all honesty, it is a worry rather than a joy to most people, and that is why conservation is a battle against the tide. A beautiful picture of a rainforest tree can no longer bring to mind bliss at the shocking, pristine splendor of the world; rather, gloomy statistics that state the tree will be chopped down or burned within the year. We stand by and watch the slashing, burning and destruction with a squeamish uneasiness in the pit of our stomach, but without any ardor to prevent it. Melancholy never has and never will fuel a fire; but passion does. Passion for a happier tomorrow, passion to protect those we love, passion to do good in the world and passion to do what we know in our deepest hearts is right. For a majority of the population, this is the missing, key ingredient in the struggle to conserve nature. We are afraid to love what we think will break our hearts, and so, without love, we watch it slowly die.

So what must be done? The answer is of the most elemental kind. We must bring love back in to the equation. We must instill in ourselves and our children a permanent, true appreciation of what the Earth is blessed with; because that is the key to turning the tide. Bound together by a single, common factor, mankind can accomplish any feat. If we saw in the oceans and hills hope rather than bleakness, a spark could be lit that would grow into a fire. Fervor fuels revolutions, and a revolution is needed to save stop this destruction of nature and everything in it. Bring back love, bring back hope, bring back joy and thankfulness and peace; and you bring back the kind of passion that we need to save our Earth, and ourselves.