I spend a lot of time outdoors and the outdoors is a beautiful place to be sure. The rivers, the forest, the high desert of Central and Eastern Oregon are a marvel of beauty.
We do not own it, however, and never have. We are just passing through and what counts most is what we do with our time here on earth.
We are not very good tenants of this planet, our home. If there is some sort of cosmic landlord he would probably kick us out with out refunding our cleaning deposit. We have certainly made a mess of things here on our rental "home"
We have polluted the water by dumping everything from raw sewage to toxic chemicals into it. We have over harvested almost every natural resource that has been given to us. We have gouged the earth with our greed for riches and over populated it to it's breaking point.
It was just our generation either! Our parents,grand parents and every generation before has done the same. Our generation has the technological resources to dig deeper and pollute more than the generations of our forefathers. We also have the technology to try to reverse at least a little of the damage humans have done as far back into history as we can go.
Global warming? Well according to most scientists this is real and man made. Why then has it become such a political football? Are we so arrogant as to think our presence has left no footprint on our planet?
What kind of earth are we leaving the next generation of tenants? A better one I hope but this "Mother Earth" of ours does have a breaking point. How many more species need to go extinct for us to understand? How many more metric tons of pollution do we need to pump into the air? How many wild rivers do we need to dam or forest we need to cut down? We are certainly slow learners in the proper way to take care of our home aren't we? So if I am called an environmental wacko or tree hugger or wild fish hugger by the soulless and greedy I will wear that handle with pride because it is the least I can do for my home.
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