As I See It / August 2007
Global Positioning
Sitting pretty in the Mid Ohio Valley hills, shielded by oak and evergreen woods and tucked comfortably far away from tsunamis and tidal waves, perhaps it’s only natural to feel a bit optimistic. If the vast majority of the world’s scientists are right, that the world is a time-bomb waiting to detonate, that the planet may be entering a tail-spin of epic destruction bringing floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves, surely they don’t really mean, like, now. And, certainly they don’t mean, like, here.
Funny enough, they do.
Mothers get tired of explaining things over, and over and over again. Mother Nature is clearly finished with the gentle reproof, the firm admonitions, the constructive criticism. She’s sick of cleaning up the daily mess; tired of waking up each morning amid the muck and garbage; heartbroken at watching her beautiful planet treated like a trashcan and her sunny skies turned to toxic fumes.
What’s a mother to do?
In their arrogance, people nearly eradicated trumpeter swans so they could have feathers in hats and pillows. People massacre baby seals for their lovely pelts. People still slaughter entire herds of elephants for their tusks. People going fast in their speedboats kill slow-moving manatees faster than they can reproduce. Eight types of whales are in danger of disappearing. Two kinds of seals and sea lions are hanging on to existence by a thread. Almost seventy clam species, nine species of shrimp and six species of sea turtles, once were dinner and soon may be history. Virtually any animal that runs, swims, flies, jumps or crawls, from rabbits to kangeroos, is at risk from people.
The numbers of armadillos and antelopes, salmon and salamanders, toads and tigers, black bears and grizzlies have diminished by leaps and bounds. Hundreds of reptiles and birds are barely still here. And so many plants are simply evaporating, its hard to keep track.
What isn’t being killed outright is losing their habitat so fast, all that’s left is a lonely, downward spiral to extinction.
There’s a bumper sticker that says “Mean People Suck.” It isn’t just mean people. Collectively, people are horrible. It isn’t enough that they kill each other, hate each other and treat each other, at worst, cruelly, at best, thoughtlessly, and are virtually always, heedless to anything but their own concerns. People trash everywhere they live and really seem to believe they are the only ones on the planet that matter.
Mother Nature has every reason to hold a grudge.
Even if people can be acquitted of evil intent, they cannot be excused for their absence of sensibility. Humans consider themselves the most intelligent species. Mother Nature is about to test that hypothesis by providing the ultimate lesson on cause and effect, a lesson people seem to feel has nothing to do with daily living.
And, maybe, it doesn’t. Maybe people never deserved the world they were granted. And, maybe it is already too late.
But, maybe not.
There’s enough shame and blame for every single person on earth to bear some of the burden. But, there is also enough to be done that every single person could begin making amends. But, it has to be more than changing from regular light bulbs to fluorescents or raising the thermostat two degrees, although both are good to do. Don’t just plant a tree. Plant a tree and then save a forest. Contribute to good causes, but give more than money. Give time and effort. Turn off the electronics. Shutting down the television, stereo, and computer saves thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Then, use the time to do something positive for another species, for a change.
So many people say they want to make a difference. This is the time and here is the place.
It’s going to have to be a big difference. People may be the most intelligent species, but soon they will have only sponges and rocks for comparison. PL
Copyright © 2007 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
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