Cause and Effect
What a conundrum the people of planet earth find themselves in, at least the ones who are consciously aware. If you’re starving, or being bombed, or you have no water, if you’re poor and struggling for basic necessities, if you lack basic education, well then you may be too busy with survival to be aware, but you will be affected. You are the ones who struggle the most with the effects of stupidity and greed.
Our planet is changing. We seem to be bombarded with more extreme weather than “usual”. Some claim that media has made us more aware of weather phenomena than we once were; nothing is really all that different than before. Climate change is normal. This panic being roused in us is just media hype. Disasters make good stories. Others (including numerous scientists) claim we’re heading for the tipping point, the point of no return, and we must act now or face irreversible damage to our planet, even extinction.
Myself, I do not care if people believe in climate change or think it’s a sham. Belief doesn’t matter. What matters is that humans have been thoughtless, arrogant and greedy for centuries. We have believed for far too long that we are superior to all other species; that every mineral, critter, waterway, tree and piece of ground has been “created” especially for us to use (or abuse) as we see fit. And we have been and continue to be dumb enough to think we can manage nature, usually in a vacuum without recognition that everything works together.
Forget about global warming.
Forget about climate change.
Let’s talk instead about pollution.
I think that most everyone can agree that we have unthinkingly been using our air, land and water as a dump for the byproducts of “civilization” far too long. Our air is becoming less and less breathable. Our soil has been mined so long it’s fertility is all but gone. We use our rivers and lakes for waste dumping grounds and it’s getting harder and harder to find safe, palatable water sources to drink. We haul garbage out to the ocean on barges, creating islands of plastic and destroying the ocean’s ecosystem. We decimate forests leaving them vulnerable to insect infestations. We overfish, over hunt, attempt to manage wildlife. We leave wastelands behind when we mine for precious minerals and drill for oil. We take and take and forget to give back. We think we have a right to sit at the table. Our big brains have not made us good stewards of the earth. They have instead made us a plague upon it.
We know better now, don’t we? We did spend a very long time with our heads in the sand, reaping benefits and not seeing the down-side. But we can, must, open our eyes. And we can, must, attempt to remedy our past excesses, errors in judgement, foolhardy choices and begin to make new choices using better sense and better science. We need to add the environment into every equation when we put our shovels in the ground. We are smarter now....? We’ve seen the damage greed can cause.
Think of the world you are passing on to your children, and theirs, and theirs.... This year do more. Encourage, support, praise individual efforts. Pass it forward, give back. Lobby for legislation to bring the big players in line. Encourage and support government decisions that promote good environmental stewardship, and don’t vote them out when they have the courage to do so.
A new year is just around the corner. It’s time.
Happy New Year from North of 54!
