Meet your hosts Eco and Echo!
Eco is a brilliantly colored, medium-sized parrot belonging to the Spix’s Macaw species, native to the shrinking caatinga forests of eastern Brazil. After going extinct from the wild due to loss of habitat and being hunted for pets, they have been reintroduced.
Echo is a Blakiston’s Fish Owl, one of the largest owl species in the world, hailing from the old-growth forests of eastern Russia, China, and Japan. Their populations have shrunk due to logging and overharvesting of their food sources, like salmon.
The following is a transcript from the first meeting between Eco, Echo, and a few humans that decided to listen carefully to what they were saying.
Eco: “Welcome to…to Earth! Have you looked and sniffed around? It’s an amazing place. There’s so much going on! Flowers are blooming and insects are swarming, there’s high speed chases and narrow escapes, lifeforms that have been around for millions of years and others that are just being born, there are tiny things and big things, life and death, beauty and blood!” Eco ends a little breathless and wild eyed
Echo: smoothly coming in “ Yes, our Earth is really something. Incredible variety and creativity all in one place. And every one of us has our part to play in helping it to continue, to maintain a perfect balance on our planet.”
Eco: “Maintain balance? You mean like how I can balance on one leg?”
Echo: “Sort of…except instead of just you balancing, it’s like we’re all in a circle balancing on one leg and leaning on each other to stay upright. If one of us loses balance we will feel the effects all through the circle.”
Eco: “So you’re saying we are all balancing life on Earth together, and when something changes in one place, the entire planet will be affected?” Looks concerned. “ Wait. So I can’t just take my family and friends and the creatures I like and hide out somewhere if things get really bad?”
Echo: “Well you could, but eventually you would be affected too. There is no escape from what happens in our shared world. We’re all in it together…forever. Til we die. And then even after that according to some people!”
Eco: “So uh, are we doing pretty good then? Everything’s nice and balanced?”
Echo: Looks toward the humans. “What do you think, humans?”
Take a moment to answer Echo’s question out loud or to yourself. Is life on our planet and society balanced? When you feel you have answered this question, continue reading.
Echo: “If you answered ‘no’, our planet and society is not in balance, then you’ve been paying attention! Well done. Indeed there are many ways our planet and your human society are struggling with balance. One imbalance is that some humans are taking way more than what they need from our planet, and being irresponsible with their creativity, making things that pollute our air and waters. Another imbalance is that many humans who have been helping to take care of Earth have been harmed and forced off the land by other humans who have forgotten their role in Nature. Because of this we have had to say goodbye to many creatures whose species have died out. Without all of the amazing plants, animals, fungi, and minerals on our planet, all this beauty on our planet won’t survive, including humans! Humans will also be really sad and lonely.”
Eco: “Geez. You humans better get your act together.”
Echo: “While it’s true that humans need to take responsibility for their actions, we are all in the same boat. We are all on this big spinning green ball in space together, so we can’t spend a whole lot of time just pointing fingers.”
Eco: “Ugh, but I like pointing fingers! I mean-FEATHERS!” Stews in frustration for a moment. Then has a lightbulb moment. “Hey…I have an idea! Helping to keep things in balance isn’t just about leaning on each other, it’s also about communication and passing on information-like stories! What if humans used their voices to tell the stories of our planet to other humans? And through the stories they could call on other humans to show up for Earth! They could become the voices of Earth!
Echo: “Hey, I think you’re onto something Eco…What do you think humans, do you want to become the voices of Earth?”
Presented by: Eco Echoes Village Theater Toolkit
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