by Suprabha SeshanPublished in http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/2014/02/6212?page=showI wrote this one night at3:00 a.m. I'd been awakened by the sounds of the forest, and a powerful dream.A question arose: if I had only one chance to write something what would it be?The peg this piece hangs on is the notion of human supremacy. Thank you,Hardnews magazine for publishing it.I am witness to themurder of forests. To be silent in the face of this is unconscionable. I am witness to the birth of forests. To be silent in the face of this is unconscionable. I am witness to, nay, Im beholden to, nay, Im alive and breathing andwho I am because of the work offorests. To be silent in the face of this is unconscionable. Moreover, I am daily witness to the immense and fecund intelligence offorests, and of every human and nonhuman in my forest home. Above all, to besilent in the sure awareness of this is unconscionable.***I write tonight to add to the growing but still- too-feeble litany ofrage, despair and revolt against the continued murder of forests, a litany thatis still powerless in any way whatsoever to counter this greatest of all crimes.Whatever any of us says or does, and no matter who flags the horror, orattempts to counter the crime, the reality on the ground is nothing short ofholocaust, one that is being perpetuated by the hour, despite every loomingsign of planetary doom.***Whilerulers argue on news-screens and in boardrooms about the action that needs tobe taken with respect to deforestation and climate change, the reality on theground is escalating murder. Whilesalesmen bombard zombie shoppers with organic, green and climate friendlysolutions, the reality on the ground is burning, burying, conversion,clearance and pollution. Whilescientists prevaricate endlessly about the meaning, purpose and value of theliving world (and the universe); and economists write copious audits assigningdollar values to the living world (and the universe); the reality on the groundis rampant species extinction. Whiletechnologists dream up quick fixes by the hour, and fabulous contrivances tomanipulate energy and toxic waste; contrivances designed to aid and abet thisinsane and unsupportable way of living called modern industrial civilization;the reality on the ground is omnicide i.e. the death of all life, includinghumans. Whilespiritualists con the masses into mindgames of transcendent truths in outer orinner space, games that ignore the indigenous, the animate, the sensuous, theembodied, and the interdependent; the reality on the ground is traumatizedpsyches, of traumatized peoples in traumatized ecologies.***Weknow all this of course. The lies are being ferreted out, exposed anddenounced. ***Revoltis afoot on all continents, in every ocean and in the air, revolt by humans andnonhumans, wherever anyone not yet co-opted, or shutdown, or freaked out withgrief and despair, is witness to the savage dismemberment of the body of the biosphere. Elephantsin my forest are revolting, as are fungi, and plants, and the great planetarywinds, and everyone else still wild and free, as are the indigenous people inthe forests of central India, adivasis. Anyonewith half a brain, who is half alive, can hear the unmistakable roar of life,including, the cells in our own bodies. ***Butthere is a glaring