I
often worry that I give off some sort of impression that I don’t
believe in the dangers of climate change or the concept of global
warming. Which is, to be blunt, crap.
Instead,
I am simply being me… in the way I observe the world and the process
I often give my thoughts. I have always believed in approaching
things with a bit of a naïve, innocent, believe the best
and prepare for the worst kind of way. If you called your impression
of it a kind of devil’s advocate method, so be it. And to that
end, I am learning it may be far more worrisome what I find in
my immediate surroundings as far as environmental concerns.
Take
a look up and down the street you call home. I’d be willing to
bet that all around your community there is trash strewn along
the roadside. Bags and wrappers and coffee cups and more. Cans
and bottles and assorted whatever. Trash.
I
find a few pieces along the edges of my yard each week. It is
amazing how blindly inconsiderate people are as a whole.
The
other day I drove into a parking lot. I got out of my car, walked
a few steps toward the store, and on the ground… near the line
indicating the side of a space and just about where a driver’s
door would be if a car had been parked there… a pile of cigarette
butts.
We
are talking the very bottom branch for low hanging fruit here…
the easiest of things any of us could do as “the least we could
do” for improving our corner of the world. Most businesses—stores
to restaurants to gas stations—have trash cans literally right
there for general use. (In some cases, the bins are accessible
without even leaving your car!)
And
then we have the experts. Yeah… well… the experts dumped tires
in the ocean off the coast of Fort Lauderdale decades ago. (Because
the fish were going to love that.) With those results in mind,
maybe you can tell me why I might be hesitant about trusting proposals
for actions and solutions such as the underground storage of carbon
dioxide. Today’s good intentions are tomorrow’s lessons in caution
more often than we care to believe.
I
can be skeptical, annoying, ignorant, and a bit of a wiseass on
the subject of climate change. I readily admit, I think it’s awfully
egotistical of us to believe the planet won’t figure out a new
way of moving on without us when evidence demonstrates that volcanoes
and meteors and other disasters have taken place… literally and
figuratively floods have previously reset the game, so to speak.
The
trick is, none of it changes the most fundamental of ideas.
We
treat the planet horrifically.
No
jokes about the latest deep freeze cold snap. No videos of melting
glaciers. No before and after shots of rising waters and widening
wastelands. No meteorological statements about strengthening storms.
The simplest of observations will do. We don’t need gargantuan
studies or arguments about what is really causing what.
We
need to do better.
And
anyone that believes otherwise does not need to look far. The
trash and waste and stupidity in our own neighborhoods provides
more than enough evidence. We need to do better.
I
am far from perfect. (Laughably far. So much for leading by example.)
I
believe we do have a need for advance teams, beating the drums
far beyond anything we are currently engaged in, to keep our focus
on the future. Someone needs to at least mark the path, even if
the ultimate road shifts a bit along the way. But for most of
us, attention offered to the low hanging efforts, the simple things,
could make for a wonderful beginning.
The
reality is simple… all of us can make an improvement, especially
when most of us realize where we can make a difference.