...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Thursday, April 22, 2004
      ( 9:09 AM )
 
Mama Goes Granola

Happy Earth Day! I was never much of an environmental activist like I have been a social justice and political activist, but the environment was always a big factor and concern for me when I voted. Today on Earth Day I note that the president intends to point out all the "good" he has done for the environment. In fact he has been the worst thing for our environment since coal was discovered. He talks about using innovation and technology and yet he has stifled the innovation and technology in developing alternative fuel sources and he's re-enacted age old bans on all sorts of bad mining practices that have been destroying land all over Appalachia. He has enacted his "Healthy Forests" act, which has devastating effect on old growth forests by allowing the clear cutting timber industry to take down forests that they were previously blocked from. His "Clear Skies" act has re-instituted some of the worst polluting allowances for industry and allowed the polluting plants to police themselves.

I understand how much power there is in oil, but wouldn't that power be redistributed back to us if we could develop our own fuel sources? I don't really understand what blocks this new industry from emerging -- except for the lobbying of the oil companies that have the Bush Administration in their pockets (which is no small influence). But think about it, developing new fuel industries would create jobs, open up new fields of expertise for rising students, release us from our dependancy on Middle East oil, allow us to actually export a product that helps the world instead of cripples it, and might even allow us to live a little longer. I don't see a downside.

At the rate we're going, we're using up the earth's natural resources quicker than we can save it. I hope that humans will get smart and realize that we aren't here to dominate nature, we must co-exist with it. As much as it keeps us alive, we must also keep it alive. We're part of a system, not the controllers of the system. I hope that we will catch on before it's too late.

Meanwhile, thank you, Mother Earth for providing us air to breathe, trees to sit under, water to drink, and a place to hang our hats in the universe. I hope you'll be healthy and strong when it comes my child's time to inherit your goodness.

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