Wednesday, April 22nd is Earth Day. Perhaps that is why TT picked the theme to be "earth" just prior to its 39th anniversary. Hard to believe it's been 39 years. That would be 1970. I think I remember it but it is vague in my mind. Of course, everything from those days is vague in my mind.
In 1970 we were concerned about the environment but in a conservationist sort of way. We were still embroiled in Viet Nam and just becoming aware of environmental issues.
I serve on a local chamber of commerce Green Team steering committee. My initial interest stemmed from extended exposure to the environmental concerns of Southern California. We went through everything from severe droughts to mud slides, from gasoline shortages to the proliferation of the Honda Civic as a gas saver. That's what made them famous in the U.S. By the mid-Nineties we were reorganizing and recycling in earnest.
California is such a large and populous state. It's always going to experience the detrimental effects of overpopulation and pollution. I mean, what can you say about a state whose largest city, Los Angeles, is dependent on water coming from four other locations outside the city and state? They do not have any way to capture and recycle rain water. It all goes down the gutter. Mass trans in LA is a joke. Everybody drives their cars and sits in gridlock day after day.
A few years ago the debate was whether or not global warming was real or manufactured by the bleeding hearts and liberal Left. Now the debate is about how fast is it coming and whether or not we have time to save the planet and ourselves.
The Green Team is celebrating Earth Day with a Community Garden kickoff. We haven't had a community garden in our small town for a few years since the last one, a family farm coop, folded. Everyone is very excited. 47 people came to the initial meeting. Our group has succeeded in getting the land for the garden donated and we're now working on tools, vegetable and flower seeds. The soil has been tested and it's very healthy. We are psyched!
Just for the record, I do not think we are doomed. But we are on the precipice of a sea change. Before his transformation, Scrooge endorsed "reduce(ing) the surplus population." Of course, the only thing he had in mind was ridding the world of the needy who relied too much on the rich... kinda like the Bushies. But overpopulation and over development are at the root of much we now suffer.
Oh, and GREED.
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