Why do we need purple?

Nearly three years ago now, which is a scary thought in and of itself, I was travelling in Morocco. While in Marrakesh I was fortunate enough to see the aerial photography of Yann Arthus Bertrand, displayed in the Arsat Moulay Abdessalam Cyber Park. The captions were in French and Spanish so my interpretation of the photographs may have been off in some instances. One photo in particular however caused me to write a phrase in my notebook which has floated back into my mind now and again over the last three years and shows no sign of going away. That phrase?

Why do we need purple?

I’ll explain.

There was a beautiful photo of a hundreds of purple flowers in a woodland, the caption underneath suggested that there were vast reserves of radioactive material in the ground beneath the flowers, radioactive material which will at some point be mined. Now here’s the thing, there are two possibilities for what I meant when I wrote that.

1. Why do we need purple? There is immensely valuable rock under those flowers but so what. They’re beautiful, and peaceful and wonderful, and preserving that is more important than continuing our cheap energy feeding frenzy.

2. Why do we need purple? We don’t. There is immensely valuable rock under those flowers and while those flowers are beautiful they’ll die along with all life on the planet if we don’t achieve the continuing progress and development that using those resources could bring. The potential benefits far outweigh the existence of some small purple flowered glade.

I don’t know which I thought at the time, and thinking about them now both still have merit. At various points in the last three years I'm sure I have strongly believed in both. Fluctuating Opinions anyone? Or perhaps the answer lies somewhere in between. What will be done with the energy from that radioactive material? If it’s just used for creating short satisfaction in the form of cheap toys that last a week then break, upgrading an iPhone 18S into an iPhone 19, and funding wars around the world then maybe the world if the better place if we just kept and appreciated the beauty of that purple glade.

On the other hand, perhaps the energy from those rocks and all the other untapped resources around the world are what we need to achieve a transition onto sustainable fossil fuels, power development, scientific advances that can tackle issues around the world, provide people with food and jobs, support environmental work, perhaps propel us off the planet to spread purple flowered glades across the cosmos. Surely one purple glade right here right now is a small price to pay for all that?

The world is packed full of resources, and those resources can be used for a multitude of reasons. Some will surely always argue that the natural beauty of the world should be preserved at all costs, others that there loss is worthwhile. And yet more would take the cop out line of “oh but market forces”. I’d say the relative value of that glade and those rocks is down to what we use it for, and that’s our choice. Either we squander the worlds resources destroying peaceful beauty for disposable rubbish, or we use what we've got to make something even more wonderful. And if we do that second option to the best of our ability, maybe we won’t even need those rocks under that beautiful purple glade anyway. I know which option I’d go for.

What would your answer be? Why do we need purple?