Love Will Save This Place - Review for This Changes Everything

Climate change is a boring topic when you live within a community that shows less enthusiasm towards environmental issues as politics are always in the limelight these days. Yeah we know about green house gases, increasing temperature, melting glaciers, rising sea level, extreme weather, but what else? Malaysia is a tropical country where the weather is almost always hot or hotter, we complain about the heat every day, and agree with each other that 'it must be the climate change', and then we switch on the air-conditioner in the house, escaping the hellish weather out there, forgetting about climate change as we can't do anything about it. I roll my eyes all the time when lecturers start talking about climate change, thinking 'I know I know, I am aware of every single mechanism of climate change, I have watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and studied about it for a few semesters. This bad attitude (I admit that it is a really bad attitude) continued until I read this book - This Changes Everything - written by Naomi Klein.

It took her five years of documentation to finish this work. It is packed with information from the ultimate cause that fuels (literally) the cumulation of the Earth's climbing temperature to the global movements that oppose this kind of irresponsible extractivism throughout the world. With so much overwhelming information that I can share here, this particular chapter really hit me hard, and I know I must get the words out.

Love will save this place.

Beautiful ripples caused by swimming dolphins in Matang.

This chapter reminds me of my volunteering experience with the dolphin research team from MareCet in Matang, off the coast of a mangrove forest in Perak. As the boat moved steadily along the transect line into the open sea with 360 degree view of the blue sea and sky, a sudden sense of belonging surged in my chest. A swarm of terns fluttering behind the boat, following us in our journey as they scooped little fish among the waves; jellyfish bobbing by gently under the sea surface, their tentacles swaying gracefully; flying fish occasionally leaping out from the sea, zooming away from the boat like a maniac (it looked funny really!). And of course, our greatest joy was when we spotted the emerging dorsal fins of humpback dolphins, especially a dolphin calf with his mother. Aware of our presence, the dolphin mother tried to steer her child away from the boat, protecting him from potential harm. After coming back from the boat trip, it was relaxing to watch mudskippers with shiny scales chilling in a pool or wriggling their way into the water. Tiny crabs could be seen strolling around on the mudflat, showing off one of their giant clamp.

It was really amazing to see that this remote coastal water has nurtured a diversity of life without human intervention. A trip to the Nature is not merely an unwinding vacation, but it is a chance for us to connect to the most original place where life began, where we could have belonged to without the concrete jungles and dense traffic during peak hour. It is difficult to love the Nature without being close to it because we are forgetful when we are living in the comfort of the city, getting whatever resources that we need off the shelves, hiding from the tedious weather inside a huge shopping complex.

When was your last time when you squatted down and observed a snail?

The common birdwing. Butterflies are one of the wonderful creatures that remind me of Nature!

One of the magnificent trees in the forest.

Most of us are lacking in this kind of love, the love towards our roots, the Nature. We have the awareness that Nature needs to be preserved, but there is no feeling in this ideology, it's theoretical, it's verbal. We don't know the real feeling of losing Nature through photographs or videos, because we don't need them directly in our life. The people who fight the exploitation of Nature are those who live with the Nature, the indigenous people. Their love towards the land make them stand up against the government and the wealthy companies who try so hard to lay their fingers on the precious resources embedded within their homes. They are the people who truly understand and love Nature, they would even sacrifice their life to protect Her.

So please do take some time and go for a trip in Nature, settle down and let Nature touch your heart, you might find a place there.