The connection that the Pueblo people have with the land is something that seems to be long-lost to the vast majority of other US residents. It feels like every time I go into the woods or on a trail, I find that someone has left a little crop circle made of empty beer cans and cigarette boxes. I can’t even fathom the kind of attitude that these people have. Their sense of entitlement and lack of any personal integrity is honestly awe-inspiring, a true marvel.
The Pueblo philosophy of being a part of your surrounding landscape is one that Americans could benefit from. Choking your lands and waters with garbage means you are choking yourself as well. We need to stop seeing our environment as some vast Other that we are completely removed from. It’s very easy to be apathetic or even actively harmful towards something we separate completely from ourselves. But when our environment falls, we fall with it. When oil pipelines leak and contaminate our water, we pay. When fracking causes earthquakes, we pay. When ocean acidification disrupts the marine food web, we will pay.
It’s past time we leave behind these destructive attitudes and take notice of our environment, but realistically I know it’s too late. Corporations will exploit these lands for as long as there are corporations. But it is our duty as citizens of this country and of this planet to make it hell for them.
I agree with Catherine since it is true that we are choking the environment and ourselves with garbage. When people litter plastic or anything that can not be recycled, it usually ends up in the oceans. When plastic ends up in the ocean, the aquatic animals usually consume it and then we consume the fish, so it really is a bad system since humans are feeding off of their trash.
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