I watched some viral video of a toddler and her mom at a farm today. The mom pointed to a cow, and said, what’s that? Her daughter, who was maybe 3 or 4, said “Beef.” The mom said, “No honey, that’s a cow.” To me, this interaction illustrated the clear sight of childhood and the self-gaslighting of adulthood. Because human beings don’t look at our planet and its creatures, ourselves included, without thinking about what we’ll turn it into. A cow becomes beef, therefore the cow is beef. But we tell ourselves it’s a cow, so that we don’t have to acknowledge the slaughter and dismemberment and grinding that will turn that living creature into beef.
When I was a treeplanter, I was able to see the wounds and scars we humans leave on the planet. We have slaughtered and dismembered and ground up Mother Earth in places that the people in the industry won’t see. We’ve left gaping wounds in her, bubbling, bloody abrasions that we keep open with constant picking and poking and scraping. She may heal one day but it will be long after we’re gone, and with the help of literally every other creature that exists — save us. We destroy.
EDWARD BURTYNKSY captures these secret wounds and torn-up places. The ones that we speed by, that are hidden on the backsides of our habitats and hills. He captures the masses enjoying our creations, in all their beauty and monstrosity, without acknowledging the ravaged trash we create in the process. He captures the decrepit junkyards we keep out of sight and out of mind, including the factories where we used to produce and that are apparently about to revitalize and start cranking out consumer products and chemical waste again. Although these decaying buildings look like they’re a few years away from being functional.
Human activities have led us into a new geological age, marking the sixth extinction and potentially triggering a significant climate shift. We’re essentially departing from the Holocene epoch, and the key feature of the Anthropocene is its irreversibility. Once you’ve left an epoch, there’s no turning back. We may be able to slow down certain aspects, like allowing forests to regrow or restoring natural streams, but reversing the fundamental changes we’ve set in motion is exceptionally challenging. Cooling the oceans, removing acid from them, or reducing CO2 in the atmosphere, these are tasks that are beyond our current capabilities.
– EDWARD BURTYNKSY (Musee Magazine)
Photos like this make me consider the legacy I’m going to leave behind. Here are some from his “Oil” series, all ©Edward Burtynsky, taken in the U.S., Canada, China, and Azerbaijan.
