Once again we have the power to learn what ecological price is paid at both the supply and effluent ends of our life support systems. If we want to know the costs, they can be shown. But an odd thing happened once people got used to not knowing what was at the end of their umbilical cords. We began pretending the world was not designed in an interconnected way. Children now think that milk comes from cartons.
Manufacturers think that wheat, tin and gypsum come from the commodities market.
And we all pretend we can get away with thinking the world exists in this fragmented way, because it helps us avoid responsibility. Our unawareness gives us permission to be lavish. Instead of showing us reality, the media aid and abet us in our daily efforts to pretend the world isn't interconnected. Any real awareness of the web of life has to begin with an unfragmented perception of our immediate surroundings. Events on the evening news are far away.