GR: Some people feel care and sympathy for wild animals. Many of us have grieved for the passing of a family pet. The subject here is the death of a species, not just one individual. How great would be our sorrow if we learned that the last dog on Earth had died? Though we have no personal experience with many of the species that are passing now, we can sense the loss that comes with extinction, a species’ disappearance from the Earth forever. Here is Animalista Untamed‘s beautiful statement on mourning the losses.
“All over the world on November 30th 2016, people will be gathering in small groups for rituals of grief to mourn species lost to extinction, and to reinvigorate their love for the natural world.
“The age we are living in now is labelled by scientists the 6th Mass Extinction, or the Anthropocene. Anthropocene, because we humans are the ones responsible for wiping out animals, plants, their habitats, whole ecosystems, trashing the beautiful planet we share with them. Who knows how many species have been lost before they’ve even been discovered.
“So how does it make us feel when the International Union for the Conservation of Nature publishes the latest additions to the Red List of species at threat of extinction?
“Are those animals and plants meaningless names and numbers, easily swept to the furthest darkest recesses of the mind, and left there to gather dust? Are we living in denial?“
“So much of the information we receive about extinctions and biodiversity decline today comes from science, not from personal experience in the wild. And while science is necessary, it is often represented in press releases that are bloodless, cold, even inhuman – a recitation of facts rather than a proper elegy for the lost.” –Megan Hollingsworth
“Or maybe the news does strike home and we feel helpless and hopeless, filled with sorrow, pain and frustration. Do we find ourselves suppressing our grief for fear it may overwhelm us?
“Either way we are affected, the Remembrance Day for Lost Species on the 30th offers healing for ourselves, and a way to honor those earth-dwellers forever lost to the planet.
“Learn about past grief rituals here.”–Animalista Untamed. Continue reading: Remembrance Day for Lost Species
