"They wrote it all down to the progress of man"

I’ve always enjoyed Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere” because of the vivid descriptions. He uses his words as paint to create an illustration within the mind. It gives hope to those of us that struggle to translate the images in our heads into something tangible to share with others. If I can’t paint it, I might be able to write it.
Beyond that, I like the message within the poem. The Mariner indiscriminately kills a bird, leading to a curse on him and the death of all his shipmates. The curse only begins to lift when he finds it in himself to rejoice in and bless the natural life around him. The poem also ends with this moral:
“He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small:
For the dear God, who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.”
I think this is pretty relevant in a time global warming and destruction. If you kill nature, you kill humanity. People are starting to decide that focusing on the human toll of climate change will force people to recognize the need for change; I say that if people don’t care about the toll it’s taking on animals, they cannot care about the toll it is taking on humans. As part of the same creation, if you lack the capacity to care about one, you lack the capacity to care about the other. Of course, not caring about other humans leads to things like wars fought for control of oil, which devastate both humans and the environment. The oil then contributes to climate change, furthering devastating humans and nature, until more is required, necessitating the start of another fraudulent war. It's a self-perpetuating cycle, but not fueled by hate. Instead, it's fueled by apathy and greed. The destruction is a side effect of greed, and the apathy allows it to be called progress.