Green Mother Earth Day
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I wanted to write a great post about Earth Day because it’s deeply important to me as I know it is to so many of us these days. I have been doing quite a bit of research about what’s going on with our Earth today and we’ve had discussions here on this blog about how to deal with what we’ve done/what we are doing to and with our Mother Earth today and at times it’s been rather disheartening.
While researching I happened on an article by Science Daily talking about our oceans and how sick they are and if you go read it, do click to enlarge that photo…..that’s what I mean about becoming disheartened and especially after reading that article and more like them.
I don’t mean to concentrate on the negative because there are many positive things being done today throughout our world.
There are websites all over the net talking about Earth day and Earth Day events and I cannot do it the justice that any of them have done. I’d almost given up hope of being able to write anything at all but really it’s just that self-doubt thing talking at me again inside my head I know. I’ve got quite a bit to say about how we can recycle, reuse and repurpose things as we go along in life and I’ve had a life time of experience with it and even made a living doing it for a while - living off the money we made while recycling scrap metal.
One thing I found the other day though that really did get me to think again, and to think hopefully, was a video I found at The New York Times website. It’s about a family who are living, as they say, “Mostly Off the Grid”. They live on a 1/5 acre plot of land with their mostly solar powered house and hand powered things like the blender that I’m “green” with envy for - even though I have a very fancy high speed, state of the art blender. It’s given me the incentive to wanting to get on out and wrestle with our berry bushes that took over the garden in the last years and to start growing what we eat again and with me being vegan thereby kinda swaying Aaron towards eating like us vegans, anything from the garden is best for us in all sorts of ways; not just for us but for the Earth around us.
Another thing I found while I was doing research on ecology and our environment was this article about how Denmark is generating too much wind energy with their wind power. What a problem to have, eh?
In the end, there is hope but in my mind I just keep hoping there’s enough time and enough people who are willing to do what it’s going to take to keep this thing going stronger and faster because I really do wonder if there actually is any time or if it’s already too late. I want to be hopeful.
Do you think we have the time to do anything meaningful to save our Mother Earth in time so that our children, our grandchildren and hopefully all the grandchildren to come have an Earth to live and play on like we did?
BookMark it! del.icio.us | Reddit | Digg | Technorati | StumbleUpon | GoogleIf you enjoyed this post, please share it with others by using the links above to add it to del.icio.us, Reddit, Digg, Technorati, StumbleUpon, or your Google BookMarks. Thank you and thanks for visiting.
17 Comments »
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I may or may not have mentioned herewith that I am due to be a dad soon… in… hang on, let me just look at the Google Counter… 65 days! Therefore the “state of our future,” although always being something which has concerned me, is now of much more personal, direct relevance, to me/my family. There is indeed a lot to worry about, but I am trying to be hopeful. I have mentioned here…
http://www.enroute365.com/2008/04/a-week-ago-i-wa.html
…about necessity being the “mother of invention”… by which I mean to say that, it is at times of greatest crisis that we tend to come up with the greatest inovation. Whatever we think of our politicians, world leaders, etc, it is hard to believe that any of them would actually *want* the planet to fall apart - I can’t imagine their egos would allow it! The technology is out there, the means of turning the tide are out there; we just need people with the (pardon my “French”) balls (political or otherwise) to instigate change, to actually make it clear to us what we need to do.
And like I said in the comment linked above, we might actually be on the verge of an exciting and immensely hopeful time! We just need to keep believing and doing what we, as individuals, can…
(PS. re my pending dadhood, I’ve changed the link on my name for this post so that it will now send you to my “dad2B” blog, “The Progenitor”…
)
Aw thanks “Dad”. Thanks for responding so quickly too, my goodness.
I am just having my morning cup of coffee after having posted the post above about 7 1/2 hours ago and after checking my mail this am I found something I wanted to share here and I was going to (and still might) edit my post above to put in this link here:
http://www.epa.gov/earthday/photocontest/winners.html
That gave me another shot of hope and something beautiful to ooh and ahh over.
Perhaps somehow, somewhere there could be a spot on this site for links like this dedicated to some of the beautiful nature that we can all share in.
I’m going to answer your comment a bit more but right now that hot, steaming cup of coffee is calling me loudly.
Thank you for being here once again and for just being you. I look forward to checking out your link today.
Peace.
Great post and great question. The way I see it, we need to do as much as we can now. Whether it is too late or not is unknowable and probably besides the point. If we don’t act now, the answer is clear. Each blog like yours…each voice raised…each effort made…is part of a groundswell that IS moving us to action. If only we could turn politicians speeches into wind power!
Peace in and out, dear Nora.
Ronnie Ann
I hope we have the time, as I worry about the future generations.
We can try, each of us, small baby steps, towards our goal.
Lovely photos, Rube… thanks for sharing!
Particularly like the first one, of Battle Creek, which, at first glance, could be in a rainforest… very poignant… where is that boat heading…??
Thanks for taking time to create additional awareness about Earth Day! We all have an impact, we simply must choose what impact we have.
*waving*
“Do you think we have the time to do anything meaningful to save our Mother Earth in time so that our children, our grandchildren and hopefully all the grandchildren to come have an Earth to live and play on like we did?”
Yes! I believe that it is our responsibility to act — to walk the talk and to elect those who also walk the talk.
You can count on me to be the negative nancy in any situation. I don’t thinnk people (people being defined as the majority of persons) actually care all that much. They claim to care of course, probably because they don’t want to seem ‘evil’ or something, but in reality it would mean paying more for their goods and services. Look at Wal-mart. They abuse poor people, create slavery, destroy communities and so on, things most people would claim they care about and would do something to stop, but they have cheap goods so people don’t do anything to stop them from commiting those horrible things. What company is on the top of the fortune 500 list? The majority of people are definately shopping at Wal-mart (yes I am picking on them as they are the best example, but I could list a hundred other companies doing the same thing - I am looking at you Banana Republic and Nike). Same thing when it comes to the enviroment. People will claim to care, but not if it will cost them anything more. I have often heard the argument that they have no choice but to go for what is cheap as they cannot afford it, while it may seem like a valid statement, it is incorrect. The reason they cannot afford the lifestyle they are living unless they go for the cheapest way possible is that they are greedy and self-centred, verging on narcisim. They want too much luxuries. We could change things, but unfortunately no one wants to.
So in my incoherent as usual style of communicating, I come to the conclusion that no one is going to make any serious effort to do anything positive for the enviroment, but most people will pretend to. The worse thigns get, it is my prediction that we’ll just have to wing things. For example, if we run out of potable water, we’ll just build processing plants to clean the unpotable (is that a word? Seems like it is, if not it should be) water when that happens. No more fish in the oceans, when that happens we’ll just create huge companies that raise fish artifically (which is already being done, I predict it will just get bigger). And so nothing will ever get done. This prediction becomes no longer valid once people get wise to the fact that the corporations are running the world and finally overthrow the powers that be and create a new and fresh society. When that happens, hopefully out of the ashes will come a more sensible, less consumerist (another of those possible words that should exist but I am not sure if it is a real word)style of society.
Thanks,
Roland
I have something else to say I just thought of about Earth Day. The whole idea, as much as it is not trying to be (and as well intentioned it used to be), is a bad thing for our society. What it does (much like that pointless earth hour) is shifts the focus of doing something about enviromental protection into a nice and easily ignored basket that the politians and media can bring out once in a while to pretend that we are doing something and to show how much they care about the enviroment. The photo ops, the newspaper opinion pieces, the _____ . All works well as a propaganda device to demonstrate how much the people who can actually do something about the enviroment cares, while ignoring the fact they are not actually doing anything about it. This allows the general public to not actually change their lifestyles (and why would they have to, apparently the politians care about the enviroment and are doing their best to actually change things) while the politians can hype this self-contained ‘we care about enviromental protetion’ event that happens as proof that they are trying their best. Everyone pretends that something is happening at the same time everyone gets to shift the responsibility to someone else and we get stuck in a rut. Time to get rid of these harmful and manipulation ripe earth days and actually do something useful. I don’t buy the argument that is is a positive thing to bring awareness to as many people as possible. That may have been the case when the earth day thing started, but it is no longer what is happening. Much in the same way that Greenpeace used to be a noble organisantion and somehow morphed into the joke it is now. PETA, MADD, and various other organisations all experienced the same mission creep and has become harmful to society. Earth Day is more about shifting blame while creating the illusion of grandeur movement towards a greener world. We need less propaganda and a more real change of direction to save what is left of the natural world.
Generally speaking, I agree with both your points, Roland! The question is, what can we do about these things? I mean, what can we as *individuals* do? Because the truth is that most of us are not in a position to be able to change society as a whole… so we need to cause ripples through the social substrate, which combine and expand and cause waves of change… and so on…
The fact is that the average western lifestyle cannot be sustained indefinitely. Global Warming and associated things may, as has been suggested in certain quarters, be myths – we may not see environmental catastrophe within the next 20 or 30 years; we may have a number of centuries before the planet really starts to suffer – but suffer it will if we continue as we are… I can’t see how it cannot! The average western lifestyle, and the society which encourages it, is based on growth, consumerism, working hard, moving fast, spending, producing, more more more, faster faster faster… how can this not be damaging in the long term? We need a total rethink of how we live our lives. We can’t simply live more or less the same way, but recycle more, turn our lights off more, etc… because ultimately the fundamental bases of our society will catch up on us. Our crap will always expand to fill the space we are attempting to contain it with! So…
What do we do?
Slow down, for one. Reassess our fundamental social principles. Stop presuming that growth and physical wealth are indicators of a country’s success. Never mind how much money we make, how much stuff we produce… what about how much we morally and artistically contribute to the world? What value is attached to these things, when we measure our “worth” in various “league tables” and so on? Presently… well… probably none…
If we didn’t convince ourselves we *needed* all this stuff we buy, cheaply or otherwise, the question of whether or not we get it from Wal-mart… well… wouldn’t be an issue. The best things in life are indeed free… and if we start believing that more, it’s surprising how much of our fun, fulfilment and even our basic needs can be acquired for absolutely nowt… we need to enjoy and relish frugality and teach our children and our children’s children to do the same!
What else?
Oh yes, “Earth Day” and things… tricky one, this, because awareness *does* need to be raised, but I do so get annoyed when I am made to feel guilty by charity workers and campaigners when I am not *visibly* seen to be doing the things they are urging me to do. I don’t take part in Fun Runs, Comic Relief, give large amounts of cash to charities, etc, etc, etc… but I do try to incorporate lifestyle choices which I hope are generally beneficial to my fellow humans, animals and the world at large, throughout *my entire life*… and I tend to do these things quietly and without fanfare… but unfortunately, like many things in life, it is those who shout loudest who are seen to be doing more! I will *not* feel guilty, I will *not* feel guilty… This is, however, often hard to maintain when I am confronted with the you-are-stealing-food-from-the-mouths-of-starving-children eyes of clipboard-wielding Charity Champions…
So let me just say, here and now…
I am a good person, who does good things, and my conscience is (mostly) clear!
Hmm, maybe I should make myself a t-shirt to that effect…
Some things which a average normal person can do to change our society:
Shop in small local retailers - you pay more for your goods and services but in return you get to promote a healthy and vibrant community.
Turn off your television - Almost every show is just a hidden infomercial for something, not to mention the commericals themselves.
Read books; mostly non-fiction, preferably history - those who forget the past will continue to repeat the mistakes. Read about what happens with out of control decadant societies, it has all happened before (and I believe North American societies are just repeating what has already been done and demostrated to just not work). Education of oneself is the most important thing that can be done. Without knowledge, you’ll never change anything.
Take up some small scale farming - probably not realistic as people like to have whatever their taste buds crave no matter what the season, but it would help to get you off the dependence of our food supply being locked up with malicious intent by the agricorps.
Listen to Nora and Aaron about becoming mostly self-suffient energy wise -
There is more, I am just running out of time (only 10 mins more of surfing)
Just another thing, Quoted from above” I do try to incorporate lifestyle choices which I hope are generally beneficial to my fellow humans, animals and the world at large, throughout *my entire life*… and I tend to do these things quietly and without fanfare”. I feel that is the best course of action you can do. There is no need to create fanfare about what you do, no need to please the “Charity Champions”. Exercise proper judgment from a moral viewpoint and you will be fine. I am of the opinion that those who shout the loudest are the ones doing the most harm. However, I don’t see enough people doing what you say you do to make any realistic change in anything. I personally have lost hope that something can and will be done in any resonable amount of time and have given up caring anymore. People want to worry about their cars, televisions, home, excessive consumption of pretty much everything and so on; all the luck to them. We are going to one day to(how many cliches can come up with) reap what is being sowed. All the best, no sense in stressing over it, I figure it is just best to do whatever you think is right. I dunno, it is very possible that I am becoming mentally unfit, so take what I type with a grain of salt.
We *do* need to be pessimistically optimistic… or optimistically pessimistic…
We need to believe that change needs to happen, but we also need to be believe that change *can* happen… otherwise there is the danger of resorting to a “what’s the point?” attitude, which could lead to a self-fulfilling dystopian prophecy…
Aaron/Nora/Ruby, I’ve checked in with the other blog too. You have many friends there. Just know we are thinking of you. I agree with above comment about being “pessimistically optimistic” *Hugs*
I’m just stopping by to say hello, give you a hug, and a kiss, and a big thank you, thank you for being you.
Hugs, love, kisses, peace..
Where the hell are you, honey? I hope all is well.
Hey Ruby, came to find you here. No action though. Are you alright?
M