Call me a tree hugger I don't care, I know what I have seen; but in calling me a tree hugger you will now get a tree hugger's rant!
I have lived longer than most of you reading these posts and probably seen more of this world than most of you have ever dreamed of. I have climbed mountains on six continents, walked in jungles that few white men have even seen, sat in long houses with elders in villages surrounded with palacades with human heads atop of them. I have fought in two wars and know the total stupidity of it.
I have also seen miles of dead or dying coral reefs, square miles of clear cut jungle leaving of top soil less than an inch deep bare to erosion. I have seen small mountains of trash brought from rich civilized countries to poor 'backward' nations so their people can pick through so maybe they can find enough salvage to buy enough food to do it again the next day. Go thru a few back issues of National Geographic for pictures.
I have been on rivers in this country where there are posted signs warning people not to eat the fish caught in the river because of polution, walked beaches in this country with signs posted warning that the ocean water was unsafe for swiming because of polution. I know of cities that have directly dumped street runoff and even sewer water directly into streams, rivers and bays. You know, "out of sight, out of mind" and its now somebody else's problem. We have allowed factories and farms to allow chemicals and chemical products to runoff into waterways unchecked and unregulated and mostly ignored. That is in this country! Watch the nightly news.
This country and most of the rest of the civilized, high tech, wealthy nations seem to be of the opinion that the oceans of the world are so big that we can continue to dump all our garbage into them and they will never fill up.
Well guess what, we ARE killing the oceans, changing the climate, and are well on our way to eliminating human and most of the rest of life on this planet. This isn't empty prophetcy, it's visible, measurable fact. It maybe filler stories in the news but the facts are out there. Scientist have measured and remeasured, checked and verified these facts: Rising average tempatures, rising water tempatures in oceans, changing ocean curents, rising water levels, chemical values of ocean water, chemical values of the air. Sure they are small changes so far but it is like a snowball rolling down a hill, it keeps geting bigger and bigger.
Not only are we killing the oceans, we are killing the life in the oceans. Not just the overfishing and poor fishing practices but changing the tempature of the ocean causes fish to migrate to different waters that maynot be able to support them. Chemical changes in the water can and does kill the micro life the fish live off of. And to rub salt in the wound, that micro life we are killing is a major supplier of the Oxygen for the earth.
Go down to the fishing docks and ask the commercial fishermen, Have their fishing areas moved, are their catches the same as they were several years ago, are they seeing more fish that aren't normally seen in their catches?
For the first time in the recorded history of man, surface vessels are making regular trips to the North pole, with paying passengers! And people still are questioning gobal warming?
Major oil spills are occuring because of careless and/or stupid actions, they make the news until something flashier or bloodier comes along, then it passes into oblivion. Ask the people along the Alaska coast if its over, or Texas, or Louisiana, or if you like England. How long will the dead zone be in the Gulf? And fracking off the coast of California, that will be interesting, surfing around toxic gas bubbels in acid water. Radioactive water storage tanks leaking on the coast of Japan, well that's on the other side of the Pacific, not our problem or is it?.
No, I'm not all doom and gloom, just a realist. A friend of mine, he's dead now, told me that from space its suprisingly scarry to see just how small the earth is, a blue marble in all that black. That's us, on spaceship earth, a goldielocks planet the scientist call us, not too hot, not too cold, just right; and from what the scientist have so far discovered, a rather unique rock in the universe. And we, mankind, seem to be doing our damnedist to burn down our own home. Hey people, we've got nowhere else to go!
Let's wake-up and put out the fire before its too late.
I DO believe that mankind is smart enough to figure out ways to stop this seemingly mad rush to destory themselves, but we, you call us tree huggers, are lacking the will power of enough people rational enough to see what is happening and join with us and help turn things around. We are not asking you to parade, carry a sign, or even for money. Join us in small ways, Reuse, Renew, Recycle, Report polution, Repair don't throw away, Reduce use, don't waste. All tiny little things done daily and by millions will make a difference.
Yea, I hug trees, and great grandchildern and I want them to see at least some of what I have seen on this wonderful blue marble.