Environment Politics: Environment Global Warming
by David Jay Spyker
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A Call for Environmental Solidarity
Numbers matter. All of the scientific data, and an overwhelming number of internationally respected scientists support that the threat of global warming is a real and present danger. Certain politicians and corporate magnates would deny reality for the sake of personal power and wealth. It is time to send a clear message that we, the people of this world, will no longer stand at idle and allow reality to be twisted. We will not allow our future to be sold out from beneath us.
All of the places in which I played as a child – the empty fields with their summer breezes; the cooling woods dappled with sunlight and adventure; the standing vernal pools and ponds, all a-chirp with the music of toads, birds, and insects; and the small whispering brooks, and trickling wetlands – every last one of these places has been usurped by roads and parking lots, and planted over with houses, office buildings, and businesses. These things bring vehicles, require energy, and create pollution.
Kalamazoo Nature Center, Pond Frog
The same is happening around the world to our last remaining forests and wildernesses, and to our rivers, lakes, and oceans. Greed travels arm in arm with consequence, and the two can never be separated. The consequence of our greed is shrinking glaciers and the disappearance of snow-capped mountains, and the flooding and drought that will follow. Avarice asks of us a toll of warmer ocean waters that bring dying coral reefs, diminishing fisheries, and melting polar ice; it gives us killing heat waves and emboldens hurricanes. What cost are we willing to shoulder? What cost are we willing to pass on to future generations?
Kalamazoo River from the Kalamazoo Nature Center
Removing nature from our lives, and polluting the Earth in favor of this kind of “progress” will always come at a price; a hefty bill is about to come due in the form of global warming. It is time to change the way we do everything, and every single one of us can make small, green changes in our lives that will make a difference. We can also demand that our elected leaders help us with those changes that are too big for just one person to affect. Together, we will make a difference.
Numbers matter. The numbers concerning global warming matter, and even if some of our leaders in Washington do not care much for these numbers, there is one set of numbers that will matter in Washington – the number of people who hold environmental issues as an important political issue. Each of us is a powerful, potential vote. Make it known that you will cast your vote at the polls on behalf of the environment, and for the future of all life on this tiny, blue globe. Make it known that any politician who does not actively support a greener, cooler future will not be elected to office.
Synthetic Gecko
That’s what they are calling it – “Synthetic Gecko”. The minuscule fibers that line a gecko’s paw pads actually interact with surfaces on a molecular level. This is what allows a gecko to hang upside-down on a sheet of glass. According to the BBC, researchers have developed a polymer sheet that has a surface covered with millions of microscopic hairs, which allow it to act on the same molecular principles employed by the gecko. They claim that a one meter square of the substance could hold a car to a ceiling. That is something I would like to see, though I still wouldn’t stand beneath it.
Throughout our existence, mankind has been inspired by nature when it comes to invention. After all, nature did it first. We are all products of the natural world. We derive wondrous medicines and materials from the natural world. All manner of science is inspired by animals and plants, and their natural processes. Aside from its providing us the basic necessities of life, which is no small thing in its own right, we owe a considerable debt to the ecosystem in which we live for everything else it has given us.
It has been said by millions of people around the globe – I am sure billions of times – but I will say it here again too because it doesn’t seem to be getting through to some of the most influential people. It is long past the time that we begin to better respect our interconnected world environment, and to repair the damage we have done.
We are finally beginning to understand the ultimately complex workings of Gaia; there is so much ahead of us, and so much to do to ensure that we never discover it is too late for us – before we have taken the last of it, and the only kind of gecko we have left is synthetic.
Imago
[Homines Partus]
Spring came with awakening, came with innocence and joy
Spring came with fascination and desire to deploy
Summer came with restlessness and curiousity
Summer came with longing for the things we could not be
Take me to the forest, take me to the trees
Take me anywhere as long as you take me
Take me to the ocean, take me to the sea
Take me to the Breathe and BE
Autumn came with knowledge, came with ego came with pride
Autumn came with shamefulness for the things we could not hide
Winter came with anger and a bitter taste of fate
Winter came with fear for the things we could not escape
Take me to the forest, take me to the trees
Take me anywhere as long as you take me
Take me to the ocean, take me to the sea
Take me to the Breathe and BE
Teach me of the forest, teach me of the trees
Teach me anything as long as you teach me
Teach me of the ocean, teach me of the sea
Teach me of the Breathe and BE
See me! I am the one creation
Hear me! I am all the love that came from Animae
Know me! I am the incarnation
Fear me! I am all the power held by Animae
Me!
Give me of the forest, give me of the trees
Give me anything as long as it’s for me
Give me of the ocean, give me of the sea
Give me of the Breathe and BE
Give me all the forests, give me all the trees
Give me everything as long as it’s for free
Give me all the oceans, give me all the seas
Give me all the breathing BE
~ Pain of Salvation, from the album titled “BE”