Today is blog action day, so I’m doing my part.
It’s been rough coming back to school, because all those things I learned in my undergrad are being updated. Getting my minor in Environmental Studies at Oberlin was great. I knew all about the things that were horrible with the world, and how to fix them. It was going to be tough, but if we took action right away, we were going to change our course.
I finally watched Inconvenient Truth last week, and while it was interesting, I have to say, school has been full of a lot more pressing ideas, since we didn’t take action right away. Probably the most intensely upsetting of those are presented in Stephen Meyer’s The End of the Wild. Everyone should read this book, or at least the article “Gone” from Mother Jones, which summarizes some parts of the book. As far as that goes, thank goodness for the visionaries at the Wildlands Project.
At school we’re trying to address all these extreme situations with our designs – the greatly increased problems of climate change, the massive extinction we’re undergoing, and the social inequities that result from our decisions. But, even though I think this is a great way to approach the problem, it’s not enough. I demand that those in politics, those in power realize that we do want change, and not just as a passing fad. This is real. I am disgusted that the White House just didn’t get the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, that was intended as a message to you, Mr. President. But, change can happen at the next level down, and the next.
Keep making your personal progress. The efforts we each make are worthwhile. They give us encouragement, they teach us about living within limits, they show others that this issue makes all the others – universal health care, abortion and marriage rights, education reform, whatever it is – sink or float. If we don’t have a world, or have one that is constantly racked by disasters, we don’t have any hope.
Let’s unite. I’m hopeful today.