Saving the Planet for Beginners
To begin, you love the planet. Face it, it's true.
Equally true, the planet loves you.
Yes.
The Earth is a living organism capable of love. Perhaps
not love as humans define it, but love nevertheless.
There is no doubt about this.
The Earth loves the human race.
And the Earth feels.
And certainly feels everything we do, not only to this
beautiful planet, but also to each other.
Yes, even to each other.
Acts of war and acts of love.
So to begin, you might want to give up polluting the
planet yourself.
Let's face it, we all do, in one way or another.
There is no disputing that fact.
Unless of course you live naked and do not eat...in which
case, thanks even more for reading this book, and let me know how you came
across it.
So yes, we all pollute, just by living. And that is, of course,
perfectly acceptable. We all produce and create waste.
However, what we do with that waste defines whether we
pollute or not.
Let's put this simply.
I eat, therefore I produce waste, that is, I go to the
toilet.
And yes I'm very clean, I flush and wash my hands.
However, what happens after I flush...?
And what happens to the water I use to wash my hands.
And indeed where did the water in my bathroom come from?
How clean is that? How much chlorine is in it? And why?
OK, let's get out of the bathroom.
What about eating, when I eat, what am I eating? How much
pollution was caused to produce my food?
If it was grown, how many chemicals went into the ground
or air to make this happen?
If I eat an animal, how many chemicals did the animal
have to eat? How many things did the animal have to eat, things that I would
never eat...?
And here's another question, how much pollution to land
and water and air was produced to make the chemicals?
Jobs
Let's address this fearmonger's notion about job losses
straightaway. Because I can see your mind jumping ahead. Oh he wants to close
all the factories and put lots of people out of jobs.
The definition of human greatness, for me, is as follows:
A great nation is a nation that is the first to sign up to a treaty to stem pollution, is first to sign up and encourage others to do so.
And this nation believes in
itself enough, to know that it can find replacement jobs, better jobs, more
satisfying jobs, more morally acceptable jobs for all...
because no matter what anyone
says, a person working in a polluting job is hurting inside, no matter how deep
inside, is hurting inside because that person knows he or she is harming the
planet. And would be happier without the burden of that guilt in a different
kind of job.
So let us use our wonderful imaginations, our
extraordinary intelligence, our greatest minds, to find ways of producing all
the things we desire without the slightest pollution. We can do it.
That is what it is to be human, to be great, to accept
challenge and to prevail.
I do not believe that so many people on earth are afraid,
are that afraid.
So enough of that.
Let us return to the product I want to buy. Whether it is
food, clothes, energy, any item, any service.
The first question:
What did it cost the Earth to make it?
The second question:
How much pollution is necessary to make it?
How much of it is recyclable where I live? Not just
recyclable in a general and vague sense, but in the country and place where I
live right now?
And even if it is being recycled, how is that being done?
How much pollution is being caused? How efficient is the recycling?
The simple fact of you asking these questions will bring
about change.
For example, when someone comes knocking on your door for
a vote or a contribution. Or by writing to your local authority or recycling
company.
What is the product made of?
What is the packaging made of?
Is it something renewable, for example, wood or paper?
If I have a choice between a juice or milk in a plastic
or a cardboard pack which will I choose? We have a limited amount of oil which
plastic is made of...but we can grow trees to make cardboard...
Plastic is a wonderful substance, so perhaps we need to
keep it for things that for the moment can't be made from something else.
So this product that I desire so much, or even need, is
it costing the earth?
That’s the earth-saving question…not how much money does
it cost, but what did it cost in earth terms to produce and get to the shelf in
my shop or to my house?
What natural resources were used to make it, the
substances it is made of, what did it cost to extract them, in terms of damage
to the earth and air and water and land pollution?
What waste is being produced and how is it being managed?
What did it cost to transport it to you, again in terms
of land and water and air pollution?
What part of it can be recycled, if any, really recycled,
remember true recycling is breaking it back down to close to the original
material and being able to use that again to form any other product…
And another equally important question, what did it cost
in human terms? What did it cost the humans who produced it? In terms of soul?
How soul-destroying was the job?
And remember a product can be anything from a toilet roll
to a house…
Transport
Cars
In simple terms, and what is quite simply obvious, we do
not have enough oil to run all our cars, buses, planes and so on indefinitely.
Oil is a limited and non-renewable substance. So let us get on with finding new,
non-polluting, renewable energy sources...that run our transport and our homes.
We have the sun, wind and moving water. Sure to start
using these in a more widespread fashion is going to involve change, maybe even
considerable change on our part...or is it?
For example, I have a car which pollutes the air. If a
manufacturer was to offer me a car that did not pollute, I would buy it. So why
is there no manufacturer making me that offer...? No incentive. If I ask my
government to exempt all clean emission cars from tax, the car manufacturers
will get interested, fast.
Sure there are questions of performance and so on, and
there are people who will not want to give up their powerful cars. Fine, let's
respect them. In the meantime, let those of us who are prepared to run a
cleaner car, have the option to do so.
In this way, we are giving everyone choice, those who
wish to continue with the polluting cars, may do so, but will pay more.
Public transport
Better described as group transport as it may be publicly
or privately owned
Again, ask transport ministers, bodies or companies to
begin running non-polluting vehicles, to use renewable fuel from a
non-polluting source.
You are not asking for anything that is not your birth
right. However, there is no need to be anything other than courteous and
polite. No need to shout.
Asking
Avoid criticism, it's a form of pollution.
How to ask
You probably have access to email and all public
representatives these days have email addresses and websites, so send an email.
Send a lot of emails. The more people that do, the
better.
If you can't email, phone or fax.
If you can't or don't want to do any of the above, write
a letter, even a short two line postcard.
In one sentence, ask. Politely.
Food and Water
Let us talk about these two basics.
You may be hearing campaigns to preserve water, by all
means do. Let us also start collecting it.
There is much common sense out there already about water management and
indeed management of most resources. Start reading up about these things, for
the moment they are not in the mainstream press, but there are papers and
magazines out there, printed on recycled paper, by the way, and as with
anything else, use your own common sense, of course there are hair-brained schemes,
and of course there are those who would like to scare us to death, or even to
stop eating, drinking and breathing, however there is enough good stuff out
there to be upbeat about, one positive step cancels a thousand negative ones, a
thousand negative words are cancelled by one positive expression.
Food: get in touch with it. Find a way to grow even a
little food yourself. Find a little bit of land, a plot, a corner of a garden,
a window-box, a few potted plants, and grow some veg, some herbs, a lettuce
that you share with a snail, anything…
You immediately grow closer to the earth, you begin to
appreciate the seasons, when to plant, when to reap, and so on, you become more
part of the Earth, which let’s face it, unless you don’t eat, drink or breathe,
you are a part of, and it is a vital part of you!
Old Saying, Still New
The Earth does not belong to humans
Humans belong to the Earth
We can’t live without it, so let’s keep it alive!
You may think this a little strange, and believe me I've
been called worst than strange, but the Earth will know and respond to the mere
fact of you asking these questions, to the fact that you are caring in a more
ostensible manner. As I said at the beginning you love the Earth, in this way
you will be starting to show it.
A day is on the horizon when any act of pollution will
need to be authorised by every government on the planet.
A little further off on the horizon is a day when there
will be no acts of pollution, not the slightest, because we will be using common
sense and our great intelligence to find loving and respectful ways to meet our
physical needs.
Cleaning Up
We can all clean pollution, there is always something we
can do, even if it means getting into the dirty river ourselves, rather than
waiting for the elected body or appointed agent. If, like me, you don't know
the first thing about cleaning pollution, ask, and keep asking around you.
Ignore the no's, accept them respectfully, but keep asking.
The causes of pollution:
fear
·
of want
·
of need
·
of losing something
mere fear
No amount of fear can outweigh the smallest amount of
love
Good luck and remember:
Your planet needs you!
Do not accept impossible
The beauty of the human spirit,
is that impossible is what we do!
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Declaration of Human Birthright
Just by being born on Earth
every human has the right to: