I think we need a National “INTERDEPENDENCE DAY”, where we raise awareness about the interdepence of every living thing on this planet. I’m lucky enough
to be sitting her watching the sun rise on the gorgeous Big Island of Hawaii – an island that boasts 10 micro climates and is in my opinion, as close to Paradise as you can get. I’m on an eco-vacation, not in a sweat or eco-lodge (you know that’s not my thing!!), but traveling as a girl whose not averse to a bit of pampering, however – I travel with a conscience. I have a heightened awareness on an island like this that my footprint needs to be extremely light. I want this environment to stay pristine, and as so many beautiful spots in the world rely on tourism, it’s my responsibility as a visitor, to leave it exactly as I find it.
Snorkeling and scuba diving along the reef here brings this point home: Down in the quiet murky blue depths, with the only sound being ones’s breath, I’ve learned that in the watery depths, where life on Earth began, everything is completely interdependent. It is incumbent upon me as a stranger swimming through, not to meddle in anyway with what I find. The tiniest amount of fiddling, like “ooh, I want to touch that turtle or take a bit of that coral” disturbs a delicate system. A great example is sunscreen – I absolutely have to wear non-toxic/biodegradable sunscreen or it can affect the reef and the fish. So my diving etiquette is: Don’t: Wear toxic sunscreen, touch anything whatsoever, take anything, or feed the sea life. It’s their world and I happen to be swimming through it. The photograph is of my husband scuba diving close to a gorgeous turtle. He is a passionate diva and has taught me much about how the health of the coral reefs around the world, reflect the health of our environment as a whole.
This respect holds true for everywhere I visit on land too. It’s odd that as humans we feel such an innate need to show our dominance over nature – to leave 
our mark: we need to etch our names on Redwood Trees and ancient monuments, even on the sides of cliffs – we want to show that we’re in charge and we’ll somehow leave our legacy, however, when we’re long gone, these natural treasures will hopefully endure for hundreds of years.
A cab driver here told me that the islanders just take what they need from the Ocean and leave the rest. He was boiling with rage about the oil spill in the gulf. His family and friends are fisherman here and he feels the pain of the fisherman in the gulf. “It’s just greed,” he said, “they can’t stop taking from the Earth!”- by “they”, I think he was referring to the Oil Industry, or perhaps just shooting at everyone who he considers to be greedy: oil men, fishermen who over-fish, even regular people like you and me who unwittingly over-consume.
Back home in LA we have a lot of spiders at this time of year. There’s always a massive one, that we call “Mr Jackson” who weaves his web over the entrance to our garage. Lola used to be totally freaked out by Mr Jackson and wanted him destroyed, until we explained how valuable dear Mr Jackson is (eats all the insects and moisquitos etc). Now she loves Mr and Mrs Jackson and their enormous family!
Mercifully, I’m in a resort that absolutely respects the biodiversity of life and interdependence of all things. They even use a water-based ionic cleaner, as they know the run-off from regular cleaners go straight into the bay.
I have been asked to release one of 4 baby turtles, which have been nurtured under old enough, into the ocean on July 4th. This is how I’ll be spending my Independence/Interdependence Day! By respecting the interdependence of life, the Mauna Lani Bay hotel, (who run this program,) will have given independence to this turtle.
Finally – a powerful quote:
“Our future is dependent upon increasing cooperation and interdependence in a world tied ever more closely together by technologies of communications and travel. The emergence of a truly global civilization has been accompanied by the recognition of truly global challenges that require global responses that, as often as not, can only be led by the United States — and only if the United States restores and maintains its moral authority to lead.” – Al Gore.
