In May almost every corner of Europe turns green. Nature shows its strength and biodiversity. It is a time of reflection, to think more about our impact, as human beings, on the environment and on the ecosystems.
Maybe in these moments, the amazing explosion of the vegetation will help us to be able to understand how much we have squeezed the nature in more and more confined spaces.
It is a good time to understand that we have replaced biodiversity with monocultures of cereals and plants useful to us. That we drove wild plants from our lands using various means, including the most harmful, the chemicals. The herbicides have killed biodiversity in many countries. Moreover, the small refuge areas of the spontaneous flora plants have also been eradicated. The agricultural roads have been asphalted as an expression of our high technological progress. The agricultural areas are cultivated with a geometric precision by using satellite communications. No place for the wilderness of the nature.
Above all, as a crown of success, the lawn culture. The garden areas around the houses have become spaces for lawn cultivation. Lawn care can be a healthy habit for simple physical activity and for spending time in the nature. Regular mowing of the grass results in a beautiful lawn in which nothing of the spontaneous flora survives because those plants need seeds for their survival. Only grass is able to resist to this human care. And grass cultivation has grown so much that in some countries it is in the first places in the cultivation, along with wheat or corn.
It's time to look at our crowded cities, full of stone, concrete, glass and asphalt. The wild flora, the so-called wild nature, is systematically eradicated. Any small plant that appeared as a miracle among the cracks of the asphalt is uprooted and thrown away. We live in artificial spaces, where we carry the burden of old concepts, created in the period of plant domestication. We don't want anything is out under our control.
Moreover, we have an obsession of the efficiency. Everything has to produce direct benefits for us. We have exaggerated concerns for the profit of the present, compared to the chances we should offer to the future generations. Look to our mountains. Many of their areas have been transformed from meadows into monoculture areas for fodder. Animals no longer graze freely, because they are more productive if they stay in the stable and eat the mowed grass. This way of transforming animal husbandry can be efficient, but not at all sustainable. Instead of biodiversity we have grass monoculture. Instead of cheeses from mountain flora we have a mediocre monoculture cheese. Have nice dessert, dear consumer!
Can we do more for nature? Can we be wiser? Can we think of collective actions? Maybe strategic actions? If we keep admiring the splendor of the wild nature of May….
