Earth Day Thoughts

I once thought the climate issue - "global warming" as I often heard it called - was just a political football. I am not a scientist and I don't understand all of it. 

However, I do understand that if we don't care for our land, it won't keep caring for us and our children.

I do understand that if we pollute our drinking water badly enough, people will die. If we pollute our rivers and our air, people will die or be sick. If we erode the soil or put poisons under and into it, that affects our lives and even our food supply.

And I understand that these things are happening, and have been happening for a long time, in different degrees and different places, here and in other countries.

But I also know that sometimes things get better! I understand that smog is not what it used to be, back when I often couldn't see my beloved sky when I lived in Los Angeles. I understand that air quality is at least somewhat better in many places, and some of the reasons are that factories were more regulated and cars were switched to unleaded fuels. Solutions based thinking can be valuable.

I've begun to think that the so-called "climate issue" is not just about climate but that it's a whole lump sum. The important thing is sustaining life and preserving resources, just like when I was a child and we re-used and repaired. And just like when we went camping or stayed in a motel, my parents taught me by word and example to try to "leave it better than we found it".

My science education hasn't improved much over the years, but my life experience and logic whisper to me that the term "global warming" may at times be a misunderstood term, especially by those who, like me, are not experts in science. It doesn't really matter precisely what someone believes or understands about the climate. What does matter, though, is that we can all breathe and drink and eat, not just the rich, but all of us. 

Although concerns over this, mixed with politics, may at times lead to over-regulating the wrong entities, such as burdening individuals or small business, this does not take away from a very real need to regulate the extent to which companies can use and abuse resources. It does not take away from the need to minimize damage and to leave our resources a little better whenever possible, rather than a lot worse tomorrow for the sake of profits today. In some cases, those tomorrows may even be catching up with us.

I believe that both on a voluntary personal level (through education and awareness), and on the level of working toward the just regulation and restraint of large companies, especially mega-corporations, that we need to all work for that seemingly old-fashioned, real-life value, to try to leave things better than we found them…for the vulnerable among us…and for ourselves…and for our children.