What do you want to leave your children after you’re gone? How will your offspring cope in this world without you in it? What is your legacy to them? It’s something every person thinks about when faced with their own mortality.
No matter our backgrounds, we all have one thing in common – a heritage. There is a social, emotional and spiritual legacy that is passed on from parent to child. We’re all passed a heritage, we live them out and we in turn, pass it on to our family. Whether we realize it or otherwise, the legacy that we pass on to the ones who come after us, would be one they would have to live with for the rest of their lives. It’s sobering. It’s the truth.
We work hard all our lives to ensure that our families are taken care of. We educate our loved ones hoping that education and the opportunities we present them would take them a step further, a level higher than we could possibly achieve in our own lifetimes.
It seems that we do all we can to secure a future for our children. But what if money or property, even substantial amounts, were insufficient to guarantee security for our heirs? What if no amount of money would assure them a liveable climate, fresh air, safe drinking water and an escape from floods or drought? With such vital resources in short supply, there’s no escaping a life that can’t be supported any longer by the only planet we call home.
HEAVY PRICE TO PAY
The truth is this. We’re already living out a legacy that our predecessors have inevitably passed on to us. The transition of a once-green nation into a developed one has come with a heavy price to pay.
Back in 2008, study by the Institute for Environment and Development at University Kebangsaan Malaysia identified the conversion of forested areas into two major cash crops – rubber and oil palm plantations – as driving significant environmental change in Peninsular Malaysia.
They discovered that over the last century, the development of these cash crops has changed the country from one dominated by natural landscapes to one dominated by agricultural landscapes. But the last decade of the century also saw urbanisation beginning to impact significantly. The environmental consequences of these changes have been depicted through loss of biodiversity, geo- hazard incidences, and the spread of vector-borne diseases.
These are news that hardly surprises us anymore. From the extinction of our Sumatran rhinoceros, to the classification of our iconic wildlife including the Malayan tiger and the helmeted hornbill as critically endangered, to natural disasters such as flooding, landslides, unheard-before diseases and climate change, we have become apathetic and grown used to the “new normal”, little realizing that our children will be living out another level of “new normal” in the future, one that is bleak and devoid of hope.
Across the globe and right here in our own backyard, environmental destruction and lack of enforcement, affects the livelihood of the poor and the marginalized foremost, causing an increase of suffering and conflict, thus spreading insecurity and fear. Are these the legacies we want to leave behind?
These are symptoms of a world, nation and people who are deeply mired in a way of obsolete and selfish thinking that inhibit farsighted actions, because we’re all trapped by the fear of losing individual material wealth we procure for ourselves and our children - a fear that jeopardizes any spirit of common action.
The World Commission on Environment and Development writes: “We borrow environmental capital from future generations with no intention or prospect of repaying. We act as we do because we can get away with it: future generations do not vote; they have no political or financial power; they cannot challenge our decisions.”
A LEGACY TO LEAVE BEHIND
This brings us back to the idea of leaving a “legacy” because leaving a legacy involves more than just bequeathing your personal wealth to someone, it involves leaving behind a habitable environment for your children and their children.
It involves looking beyond yourself and your own little world, and striving for the common-good of the community around you.
Leaving a legacy involves hard work. We work towards making informed choices about how we live out our life. We switch off lights, carry shopping bags to our local markets instead of using plastic bags, we compost and recycle. We strive to leave a lesser carbon footprint, recognizing that climate change is man-made and that we collectively can slow the process down by being informed, reducing our consumption and switching to more efficient energies.
Leaving a legacy involves educating ourselves and our children that our natural heritage deserves to be protected, and that nature deserves our respect. We teach ourselves and our children to say no to the senseless accumulation of material goods and to say yes to a growth in the quality of life.
Leaving a legacy involves political advocacy. It means we need to hold our councilmen, elected parliamentarians and politicians accountable to the promises they make in actions mitigating climate change and supporting environmental laws and conservation.
Leaving a legacy involves courage to speak up for the marginalized, the poor and the voiceless – our wildlife, our oceans, rivers and forests. The ability to serve a cause greater than our own, in order to secure for ourselves and our community, a peaceful, sustainable way of life. After all, the intactness of our social relations is just as relevant and important as the intactness of our ecosystems.
Leaving a legacy means that we need to go beyond our personal benefits and venture into the more altruistic path of making the world a better place for our children. It begins with us changing ourselves first - because we should and we can.
Not too far away, the sound of their wings beating furiously is heard long before their shadow blots the rays of evening sun momentarily. The sight of the globally threatened plain-pouched hornbills passing through the skies of Malaysia’s oldest landscape – the Belum-Temengor forest complex – is something that sears your memory with an unforgettable stamp of just one of nature’s many finest moments. A fitting example of one of the most precious legacy we can strive to preserve for our children, and all those who inherit the earth.
Happy Earth Day 2017.