Why Don't We Listen?

Remember Joni Mitchell's "Pave Paradise, Put Up a Parking Lot?" Her message meant a lot to some but mostly fell on deaf ears. Remember Lynyrd Skynyrd's immortal message, "I see the concrete slowly creeping, Lord take me and mine before that comes."

Popular music has often been the means of delivering profoundly important messages. Unfortunately, many who heard these messages took them no more seriously than being part of the entertainment.

They are much more than mere entertainment. They should be interpreted as the fire alarms they are. They are the fire alarms that our generation has recognized the destruction of the environment is imminent if we fail to react.

We need to hear the alarms and do something, now! We have to stop using the poisons and stop paving over nature. South Korea, at great financial cost to their country, set the bar on nature conservancy. In Seoul, a great river had been covered with roads and buildings and basically forsaken. A few years ago, at great financial cost, they completely tore up the roads and buildings covering the river and turned the area into a beautiful nature conservancy right there in the middle of the city. The South Koreans also took a mound of garbage and covered it with acres of billowing grass and walking trails. The vegetation they chose was intended to draw beautiful animals, birds and butterflies.

Stone Mountain, GA also has taken a garbage dump and transformed it into a series of walking trails. Virginia Beach, VA has likewise taken an unsightly garbage dump and turned it into a beautiful place.

Through conservation and recycling we can significantly decrease the amount of garbage we each create.

Planting trees and using less paper are vital, simple ways to help.

Sorting garbage into categories like paper, cardboard, glass, plastic, aluminum, etc and making mulch out of everything biodegradable is of paramount importance. Recycle everything you can. It is of vital importance. This is not a fad, this is the way we have to live if we are going to continue living.

Once you develop a system, it will become second nature and you will see the benefits directly. You can use the mulch to fertilize your yard &/or garden. Growing your own garden obviously has benefits for you. Using biofriendly pest control helps our earth get back to it's natural state. There are many places to find ecofriendly methods of pest control. Your county extension office and many web sites can help.

*Note: To help with the garbage sorting, try using more than one garbage can. Label each one as to what you put in it. If space is a concern, try bags instead.

Any and everything you do for the environment is a step in the right direction. Do what you can and I'll do what I can and we'll watch the earth get well.