I have the right to fly
To grow, to prosper
The right to be
To raise offspring
Feed you and others
To be fed myself.
Who defends our rights?

Does a human being have more right to a clean earth and a safe and healthy life than a bird, a tree, a flower? 

If your answer to this is "Yes," then why? And if you think that is the case, what will sustain our lives when birds, trees and plants become extinct?

Hasn't that human being forfeited that right by polluting the earth, by risking humanity’s health through bad living habits and by using year after year more than what the earth can provide?

Does a Western person have as much right to it as a person in a developing country who has never been guilty of that unbridled consuming, polluting and unhealthy behavior?

Right or Favor?

Do I have a RIGHT to live in a healthy environment? Or is life a FAVOR of nature, which I may enjoy as long as I behave nicely and don't make a mess of my body and my surroundings, and that of people around me and people far away?

I can get terribly irritated by the cries of especially Western people about their rights. Right to clean air, right to clean water, right to healthy food, right to...
...yet another vacation by airplane or cruise ship.
Did they earn the right to the pollution they cause by living with an ecological footprint of far less than 1 Earth prior to their airplane trip or boat cruise?

In my opinion, we in the 'developed countries' have long since forfeited all our environmental rights, and yet we continue as if the amount of available rights and resources for us can never be exhausted.

Wake up, it's long run out. There is no clean water anymore, no clean air, no clean fertile land. Every breath you take, every sip of water, every bite of food is poisoned by agricultural toxins, plastic and PFAS. EVERY SINGLE ONE, no matter where you live.
Your rights, my rights, they have all stopped, since we continue to abuse the rights of nature.

Spoiled

We behave as spoiled children, panic breaks out if we even suspect that the luxury goods we bring in from all corners of the world on a daily basis will become less available and more expensive.

We must earn our rights for today and tomorrow and the rights of humanity in the future. Earn them by sustainable living, by consuming significantly less, by cleaning up what we ourselves have polluted. We simply can not continue to live in a way that significantly exceeds 6 of the 9 planetary boundaries. Not just for a short time, but continuously, for many years.

And since the vast majority of Westerners refuse to do so and millions of people in second world countries want to possess before they will think about reduce, we have no right whatsoever to what the earth and nature have to offer. If we take it anyway, we are robbing and destroying the lives of people in the most disadvantaged countries, of the future of our own children.

General info on this artwork

'Right To Fly (2)' is an artwork in my collection 'Stray Birds'. It is a digital transformation of a photograph. Printed on order with high-quality ink on museum-quality, acid-free cotton/rag paper (Hahnemühle Photo Rag® 308gsm). The work comes in a limited edition of 10, signed and with a certificate of authenticity.
But of course, it is also available as Open Edition print, without signature and not numbered. Available in any size you desire, prices starting at €55 / US$60.

Maximum size is 225Wx150H cm / 90Wx60H inches, any size available up to that maximum. So please let me know the size you would prefer.

I start with one or more photographs made by myself to create these artworks. Then I use digital painting, color adjusting and adding and transforming multiple artistic textures and effects. I do this until there is a surreal atmosphere that touches me and tells the story I want to tell you.

Prints are available, ask for a quote or contact me through a message. Also available on Saatchi art.

ALL WE NEED IS LESS CONSUMING

Through my artworks I ask you to reflect for a moment on the nature around you, on the beautiful feeling that nature can evoke. Thus to think about your actions to support the wellbeing of the earth and everything that lives on it. And on what humanity loses when many of us continue on the destructive path of ever more greed and consuming. And please, reflect on how you can survive in this rapidly changing world…

So do you want to know your ecological footprint? 

Then visit this website: https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en 

And do you want to reduce your ecological footprint?

Then ask me, I will help you. For free. Or simply visit my website and choose in the menu for Your Footprint.

And if you appreciate my writings and art and want to support me, you can buy me a piece of fruit here: https://ko-fi.com/jacobberghoef, thank you 🍏 !

So are you interested in more? Then read what I wrote about System Change, Man's impact on the earth, Organic Change, Regenerative Agriculture, Regeneration