The Theatre Times: The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus Longaeva) is the oldest tree in existence known to humankind. It can reach an age of over 5000 years and it is one of the most resilient plants on Earth, resistant to insects, fungi, rot and erosion. The harsh conditions of its environment – the cold and windy mountains of the American West – are the reason for the Pine’s slow growth, but also the dense and strong wood.
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I have never heard the term “Ecocide” before but I suppose it is apt for the situation we find ourselves in. I also have never heard of “Eco- Theatre” before but it certainly sounds interesting in how it was explained in the article. Theatre, specifically good theatre, can work as the best type of marketing for a cause. If you can get people to think, and really think not just accept what you tell them, they will make a change in their own lives. You have to trust your audience to care, to work things out for themselves, to interpret, and to keep that with them for a long time. Hearing that Serbia was the most polluted country in Europe was not terribly surprising to me however, given the huge amounts of political unrest that have been so prevalent in the Balkan states would allow for very little ecological legislature to go through easily. I am glad, although it remains on the fringes, that theater there is trying to bring more attention to this problem.
Last summer I had the chance to go backpacking throughout the Balkans and specifically spent a large amount of time in Belgrade Serbia. I stayed with my girlfriend who is from there and it was a very transformative experience, to say the least. I truly never realized how disconnected most of the Balkans are from the rest of Europe and specifically how Europe uses the Balkans to essentially do their dirty work. Out of sight out of mind kind of sums ups Europe’s waste disposal and pollution efforts, as instead of fixing the route of the issue many European countries have simply exploited the Balkans. A good example of this is Skjope in the small nation of North Macedonia, as directly outside of the city of Skjope they burn and dispose of most of Europe's garbage. This in turn has caused mass pollution and ecological damage. When walking around Skjope this was very visible as it was almost hard to breathe among all the waste pollution in the air. This was similar in Belgrade Serbia, as they still use coal electrical plants to produce most of the power within the city, and because of this, there is visible soot of coal that covers almost every building. Many of the current politicians also refuse to fix the issue because most of these countries economies are surrounded by the fact that they do the dirty work for Europe. Recently Tesla has announced they will be building a massive factory in Serbia and other parts of the Balkans, and while electric cars are a good thing, this will also inevitably pollute Serbia even more.
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