My Opinion

When mankind first inherited the Earth, it abounded with amazing flora and fauna (plants and animals).  Man was given the responibility to live in harmony with nature and preserve our Earth for generations to come.  However, as civilizations grew and progressed, man in his ego and selfishness, soon forgot his debt to nature.  He started to destroy beautiful natural habitats in his quest for wealth, power and progress.  Preservation of nature was the last thing on his mind. All this has set the scene for the environmental problems we face today.

Large scale fishing, whaling, mining, hunting, logging, land clearing and industrialization have resulted in environmental disasters.  Only now have we become conscious of the extent of destruction to our environment.   'Conservation', 'endangered species', 'recycling' and 'pollution' are now hotly debated topics.

Overfishing and indiscriminate consumption of marine life causes the depletion of our oceans.  It wreaks havoc on the supply of food and nutrition for all the species in the food chain.  Uncontrolled mining results in the depletion of fuels and minerals.   This declining supply of food and fuels affects human existence since these are essential needs in our lives.  Sport and trophy hunting, whaling, and poaching, other than the fact that these acts are simply disgusting inhumane, and reprehensible, jeopardize the existence of endangered and threatened wildlife and causes the extinction of many of these magnificent intelligent sentient animals.  Presently, statistics show that forty to fifty species of animals perish and vanish from the face of the Earth each day!   As the food chain is slowly broken, even more animals and plants will face extinction.

Logging and chemical industrialization are the main contributing factors to pollution.  With the destruction of our rain forests - the "Earth's lungs" - the Earth is slowly losing its supply of oxygen.  Each year, an area of rain forest the size of Switzerland disappears as trees are chopped down for wood and land is cleared for development.  Factories built near rivers and streams often channel their waste into them, polluting the water, killing wildlife living in these waters. Toxic fumes emitted from factories are released into the atmosphere.   Not only does this sicken us with cancers and other health maladies, it disturbs weather patterns and changes our climate.  The resulting pollution of both our water and air are health hazards leading to contaminated drinking water and respiratory problems.  These affect not just human beings but other living creatures as well.  

Man seems to be pushing the limits of his stupidity in creating ecological disasters in the making (The Three Gorges Dam in China is one fine example, not only flooding and ruining hundreds of miles of land, culture, flora and fauna but displacing people that have lived there for millenia, all for the notion that this will bring greater prosperity to their country?  Does this make sense or "cents"?  What should China have learned from that other great disaster of construction and civil engineering... the Great Wall?  It never did keep out the Mongol horde as it was intended to do, and thousands lost their lives in building it.   But never mind, I'm digressing here.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) used in spray aerosols and refrigerators are damaging the ozone layer, a thick blanket of ozone gas above the Earth.   There is now a hole the size of the United States of America and global warming is a very real problem today, not to mention the havoc that solar wind plays.

Mankind, now painfully aware of the environmental problems, has founded various organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and the Nature Conservancy to save the Earth.  Tougher laws with stiffer penalties to protect our environment have been made by concerned countries.  Yet still, countries like Japan and Norway find loopholes and still engage in the illegal killing of whales, and elephants, tigers and bears for senseless items like love potions and jewelry, and trophies.   Must these environmental agencies have to resort to guerilla like-tactics like blowing up whaling vessels to get the attention of the public and various world organizations and for this nonsense to stop?  Campaigns have been launched to make people aware of the importance of conserving the environment but most people are ignorant and can't  be bothered by the plight of some poor whooping crane or black panther in Florida.  This is sad.  We all need to raise our environmental conciousness today, now, if we intend to ever live on an earth free from pollution and endangered fauna and flora. 

Environmentally friendly items which are recyclable and biodegradable are now the trend.  Buy them.  Buy organic items and items that say "dolphin safe" or "free from animal cruelty".  Never ever buy the earthly remains of an endangered animal, like ivory, shark teeth, a trophy head or bear claws (and I don't mean the pastry here either).  Just imagine hanging your uncle Henry's head on your wall or wearing your grandfather's teeth on a necklace and you should get the picture.  Will our children or grandchildren be able to see an elephant in its wild and natural environment? Or a whale frolicking happily in the ocean?   Or will they all be extinct by then?  I hope not.

Everyone has to play a role.  To save the Earth, and make it a better place for ourselves and our future generations, we all have to think of the consequences of our actions.  Is the end of life as we know it approaching? Let us not wait to find out.  Let us not do nothing.

Be kind to animals, all animals. They are all thinking feeling creatures and feel pain.
Do not destroy habitat.
Do not sport hunt. 
Do not pollute.
Do not buy the skins, hides, or other earthy remains of endangered animals, or products made from endangered or threathened animals, even if the potion claims to increase your sexual desire (it will not).
Buy environmentally safe and cruelty free products.
Join an enviromental organization or volunteer or contribute money to these agencies.
Write to your governmental representative to support the environment.
Educate yourself, the more you know (about anything and everything), the more you'll be able to help.
Do what you can, whenever you can to help endangered animals and to protect our enviroment.

Thought for the day:  For an individual to pay homage to an illusionary set of constraints that they believe society has imposed upon them is a betrayal of self that is far more injurious to their identity than the actual standards of society itself. In each and every person is the strength to stand alone in the light of higher ethics. The strength to refuse to lower their standards to a level compatible with the local accepted standards, to choose weakness and desire of acceptance by a group can not truely be laid as a blame on society. Society is no more than a collection of individuals and so if each individual acknowledges that which is right and bravely makes a stand on the issue, then in turn society will do the same. It is of no concern what others think of your beleifs, the only concern is that you have stood by what you know is right and true. In this manner, soldiers will not have the excuse of " only obeying orders ". Who will lay the land mines that kill and cripple children, if each soldier stands and refuses the order as a violation of his personal integrity ? Who will shoot unarmed civilians if each soldier refuses to do so ? Each and every person has the power to stand by their convictions. They have only too live by their own higher standards and be willing to pay the price for doing so. If you wish to know who can change the world, you have only to look in the mirror.

Thank you,

Monica

Cool Links: