I was shocked by the brutal facts coming out of documentaries like Cowspiracy and After the Flood! Let’s look at some facts and figures for the city and the land:
- The cities take only 7{f4c266a470fc3d8c9597148c9dcc3fa35634a6db0fc07f292e7d1e393ba820aa} of the planets surface; the rest is land and water.
- A quarter of once fertile land on earth turned into sand and dust because of human interference.
- 50{f4c266a470fc3d8c9597148c9dcc3fa35634a6db0fc07f292e7d1e393ba820aa} of land is being used for feeding or keeping life stock.
- 136 million acres of rainforest have already been destroyed: 91{f4c266a470fc3d8c9597148c9dcc3fa35634a6db0fc07f292e7d1e393ba820aa} for animal agriculture.
- In two decades the Amazone rainforest will no longer exist.
- It takes 84 times less surface to grow one kilo of vegetables compared to one kilo of meat.
- The migration towards the cities has increased enormously over the last years:
Agriculture has morphed into mega farms pushing away the small farmers and turning the once so idyllic countryside into lonely places with neglected grounds.
So the most important question is: can we turn this whole thing around again and, more important, do we want to?
I personally think we do! People in the city are not as happy as they hoped to be;
More than one third is lonely or feels disconnected, the air pollution and crowdedness
makes them long for nature and the food industry is pushing and advertising their crappy food every day.
So, there IS a future for the countryside.
The bad news is that one acre of fertile ground is turned into dust every second. The good news is that organizations like Commonland already proved that worn down grounds can be turned into healthy eco systems again in combination with balanced farming.
To be quite honest the only way we can rethink the way we live is to be willing
to turn our backs to the power of the consumption industries, to turn our backs
to politicians that are on the leash of multinationals and bankers and to be willing
to change our way of life in what we eat, what we buy and what we throw away.
If we are willing to take that turn, we can STILL rebuild a paradise out of this earth and make the countryside interesting again as a place to live in, in balance with nature. Our future world: a social and business hub, a place to teach and learn and a place where we will stop harming the planet any further and heal it by reliving our ‘normal’ life.
Keep reading our Blogs to see how we want to build our paradise!
