i'll be frank: i think it's a lost cause. fighting climate change. too late. we've known about the greenhouse effect since i was a little kid--AT LEAST! the situation was dire THEN. drastic action had to be taken immediately to even hope to begin to reverse the trends. instead, it has only gotten worse. and will clearly continue to do so. a new study shows that much of the arctic ice cap will be melted in summer months-- within TEN YEARS, and that the arctic will be an open sea in the next 20-30 years!
so...? that is just the way it is. we are humans, we belong to this earth, we are creatures of this planet, and this is what we do. this is what we have done. if, as creatures of this planet, we take elements of the earth, and manipulate and use them in such a way that they make the earth unlivable for most of the beings that currently in habit it-- if we humans take actions that lead to the destruction of the environment, such that humans can no longer live on earth, so be it. the earth will go on without us, and the adapted ecosystem that evolves will be something else. something we don't get to know about.
it seems arrogant to me, to believe that it is all about us. or, all about our perspective. or, that we think we can control global climate change, or that we think the worst thing in the world would be the extinction of human beings. if we make our planet uninhabitable, then we cease to exist. and i hate to admit it, but i am kind-of okay with that. well, what choice do i have? this is reality. it is simply too late to stop global warming.
i am not at all happy about any of this. i accept it, but it is, nonetheless, still heartbreaking. i dread the loss of the polar bear, the flooding of cities, and i know that the people in the lowest economic classes will suffer first, and suffer the most. it is not fair, it is not just, but it is what we have done, and it seems absurd to think that sticking a piece of newspaper in a recycling bin is going to change this global truth.
but... i still recycle everything that can be recycled, re-use packaging of various sorts, shop almost exclusively at thrift stores and yard sales for clothes and other household items. i buy and glean local food when i can, and preserve much of it for the winter months, in order to eat locally all year. i garden organically, and i compost. i ride my bike for in-town transportation--often (not always), and i bring my own bags to the grocery store.
i figure, as long as humans are still living on this earth, might as well enjoy what we still have.
*i bet i'll never be asked to write about climate change again).
2 comments:
Your stash of canned goods is AWESOME!
I have to say I agree with you...I like to grimly joke with my sister by quoting that saying about "Where are we going, and why are we in this hand-basket?"
But, yeah, we, too, still do as much of those things you do as we can (except for riding the bike thing...I try to carpool in with dh as often as we can though).
Post a Comment