Earth Day April 22

Tomorrow is Earth Day and I feel so emotional about it. There are so many things we are doing that harm the planet upon which we rely for our very existence. I thought man was selfish enough to protect that which he needs for survival, but apparently he's not as greedy as I thought. Actually, I know he's greedier than I can even imagine, so perhaps he's dumber than he is greedy. In looking at what I just wrote I believe I'm more angry than anything else. What does it take for people to recognize that you can't just use something up and then expect it to be there the next time you reach for it? That just because something is there doesn't mean you have the right to take it?

In addition to anger I feel a sense of helplessness. Although Saeed and I are making steady gradual changes in our lifestyle, even we find it difficult to make all the changes we know are necessary. A society offers its people certain methods and materials for living, so as individuals our choices are limited to what is made available to us. We feel that we are struggling against the material culture in which we live. On the other hand, if the earth-friendly options were more available and more affordable it would be so much easier to make the better choices.

Despite my current negativity I am an optimist. Brooke Medicine Eagle said, "There is hope if people will begin to awaken that spiritual part of themselves, that heartfelt knowledge that we are caretakers of this planet. " I hope she's right.

Look at these three pictures:


And now look at these:





How can anyone be willing to destroy such beauty? Wouldn't it be easier to eat less/no meat? To drive smaller cars? To walk and bike more? To buy fewer material possessions which end up in the landfills? To own smaller homes (guilty)? To use less water? To keep what water we have left cleaner? And so on, and so on.

I am often motivated by the wisdom (or humor in the case of George Carlin!) of others, so please enjoy the writings of people more eloquent that I.

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. ~Native American Proverb


For 200 years we've been conquering Nature. Now we're beating it to death. ~Tom McMillan


Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. ~Henry David Thoreau


Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them. ~Bill Vaughn


I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority. ~Elwyn Brooks White

Till now man has been up against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature. ~Dennis Gabor


Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle, 1855

Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,
For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain.
America, America, man sheds his waste on thee,
And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea. ~George Carlin

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more. ~George Gordon

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.
~Cree Indian Proverb