Story by Rafa Estolano-Sridharan
Opinion Editor

I spend a lot of my time making pottery. Throwing clay, trimming it, glazing it, whatever. And the thing I enjoy most about it is its physicality. When I’m working with clay, I am completely in the moment. I am focused entirely on how the clay flows through my hands, the warmth of the water I am splashing on it, and the buzzing of the wheel. It is a very meditative process. When I am throwing, I feel connected to the earth and the world around me. I think that this is an incredibly important part of the human experience, and that it’s something we are losing as a people. 

We live on a planet that is breathtaking. I am constantly blown away by its majesty, its beauty which is found even in the little things — the way a bird flaps its wings, or dust settling on a table. When I make pottery, I feel that I am a part of this natural beauty. I am taking something that has existed in the earth for millions of years — clay — and finding beauty in it.

It is because I feel connected to the earth in this way that I feel compelled to protect it. Now, I’m not going to lie and say I’m some kind of devoted environmentalist, but I do feel some duty of stewardship to the earth. I feel that as a people we have a duty to move towards a more sustainable way of living, a system of production and consumption that is not predicated on infinite growth in the bounds of a finite planet, which, as cliche as that sounds, is true. 

I would like to think most people feel this way, that most people feel this sense of stewardship and duty. Most people have some way of feeling connected to the earth, whether that be making something, or just spending time out in nature. 

The problem is that “most people” rarely includes the people at the top; the people who control our systems of production and consumption. The Elon Musks and Sam Altmans of the world are completely absorbed in technology; AI and Crypto currency rule their worlds. And as they are absorbed in technology, they are completely disconnected from the world around them. Yes, they are the top 0.1 percent, they are out of touch. But it is not just that. 

These men are completely disconnected from nature, and thus have no stake in protecting the natural world. They are destroying the world in the pursuit of profit. AI Data centers account for as much as 1 percent of global greenhouse emissions, Elon Musk’s SpaceX wastes billions on a pointless quest for Mars, and the mining of cryptocurrency uses massive amounts of energy while producing massive carbon emissions. And, as they bulldoze the earth while running on the treadmill of production, they have no qualms and do not care, because they have no connection to the natural world. In fact, they have contempt; they resent the connections others have, and they seek to destroy them.

The status quo is untenable. If we continue this way, the earth will reach a point where it is no longer habitable. We must become a more conscious connected world, and to do that we need a fundamental restructuring of power, production, and consumption. In order to build a thriving world, the current world order must crumble.