Thoughts on Lucy and the Natural World

As promised, here are some pictures of Lucy. I think she is gone now, as I haven't seen her in a few weeks. I love the photo of her flapping her wings. She is sitting in one of her favorite places, an old tire that would be completely exposed during low tide.

It's so beautiful down by the river, and it makes me think about the natural world around us. I have been thinking a lot about the environment lately and reading about it. I am worried. The current presidential administration is quietly putting into place policies that are going to endanger our environment for generations to come. This is not a partisan issue, so please don't take it that way. And it shouldn't be a partisan issue. It affects everyone in the world.

To me the environment and nuclear proliferation at the two biggest issues affecting us right now. World health and nutrition and terrorism are certainly right up there, but they won't matter one whit if we blow ourselves up or destroy the planet through other means.

But it is not hopeless. There are so many things we can do, if only we would bring this issue more to the forefront of American politics. It would be better if we made this happen sooner rather than the later, because by the time it becomes the only issue it will be too late. I really encourage you to join organizations like the Sierra Club and others that are lobbying for environmental protections. I encourage you to look at your daily life and see what you can do differently to use less and create less waste. Educate yourself.

I do not claim to be anywhere NEAR perfect or even very good in this area, but I am not going to shut my ears to it either. Because for every negative effect we have on the environment, if we put the effort into it, we can make a positive effect to offset the damage we are doing. Better yet, don't make the negative impact to begin with.

For example, I did not know until recently that air travel is a major cause of air pollution, contributing to global warming by creating more greenhouse gases. So people are pledging to reduce less air travel. This feels very difficult to me, because my family is spread out all over. Apparently one round trip international flight can create as much greenhouse gas as a year of driving your car!

I will try to limit my trips if possible. But if I don't, it is not hopeless. I can pledge to offset the carbon emissions caused during my trip by making a donation to organizations that are helping to remove CO2 from the air in many ways, such as planting trees, getting rid of environmentally destructive power sources and more. For more information about this, visit here:

http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/05win/livgreen.asp