Today is Earth Day. The theme this year is climate change.
It’s pretty obvious that the climate of the earth is
changing – we are experiencing more violent storms and higher average
temperatures, the oceans are warmer and the polar ice is melting.
I believe that human activities are causing, or
accelerating, this change. The climate on earth has changed before, but never
as rapidly as since humans starting using fossil fuels to power their
electrical plants and automobiles.
I read an interesting book some time ago called Collapse by Jared Diamond. He writes
about the collapse of previous civilizations, such as those that flourished on
Greenland and Easter Island. Diamond says, very convincingly, that these
societies collapsed after they cut down all the trees. Trees also take carbon
dioxide from the air; so fewer trees mean more carbon in the atmosphere and
more warming. Will we cut down enough trees to cause an earth-wide collapse of
civilization? It’s possible.
Diamond also speaks of the problems associated with the
United States’ addiction to big cars and big, climate-controlled homes. He says
the real problem is that the developing world wants the same cars and homes. He
suggests we imagine what the world will look like when every Chinese family
owns an SUV and every residence on the sub continent of India is
air-conditioned. Even if the US froze their carbon emissions where they are
today, would the rest of the world also freeze theirs? It’s going to be difficult to say, “We will
keep our cars and air-conditioning, thank you, but you can’t have the same
things because of global warming.”
Our Congress could set strict fuel efficiency standards for
vehicles and institute a carbon tax to help control carbon emissions from power
plants, but I don’t see that happening any time soon. So I’m not sure what we
can do, except make small changes individually to use less fuel, and to save as
many trees as we can.
My kids are doing their part. My daughter does not own a
car. She depends on public transportation. My son has volunteered to help a group
that plants and tends trees in California. They are both moving to smaller,
more efficient apartments this summer.
I have enough trees in my back yard to call it a carbon sink.
I drive a small car. Other than that, I can only pray that the world wakes up
to the problem of climate change before it gets much worse.
I don’t have any poems about climate change, so I am sharing
one, just for fun, about squirrels.
Another Squirrel Tale
With them being all around my house
and even coming in at times,
how could I not have another squirrel
caper to report?
What I wanted to say of them was, that
I think they can give blessings. Surely
they are like little angels nesting in trees,
who like nuts.
I think they might even be able to
foretell winning lottery numbers, or
point out a good person to date, if you
are lonely.
But you have to be kind to them, or
they will never divulge they can talk.
From A Year With Hafiz
by Daniel Ladinsky
