I’m not a very green person.
I am not an eco-terrorist, certified locally-grown vegan, climate alarmist, nor a tree huger. I eat too much meat, consume too many resources, and gladly support a dozen industries that are doing their honest best to convert our planet into money without caring how they do it. I am a human being and I am flawed, greedy and selfish, as much so as many others. But I am also hopeful and optimistic that I can learn, that others can learn, and we can all make a difference in changing the path we have charted into oblivion.
I firmly believe that our sustainable future includes gasoline engines, diesel generators, bonfires and burning things. I just don’t believe that has to be the norm anymore. I believe that environmentally destructive practices could become the rare luxury – a nostalgic reenactment – instead of day-to-day commutes, energy use and consumption. I believe there are better ways to live, and that a combination of law and public perception can make them real in a short enough time frame to make a real and measurable difference.
But those are beliefs. What I KNOW is more substantial. That the science is sound, the evidence is solid, and that, while the systems of climate and environment are still being learned and discovered, we know enough to act with purpose and positive result. I know the reasoning, my senses, and logic that humanity is accelerating Climate Change beyond what any species on Earth has ever had to adapt to. I believe that, even if we do adapt to it in time, the cost will be beyond our wildest predictions. Yes, this is a belief. But the evidence supports it.
I believe, instead, that we can become good shepherds of our world. That the damage we have caused can be reversed if we act soon, and that the longer we resist action, the greater the cost and pain we will inflict upon ourselves and the many species and wonders we share this planet with.
I know there is a conjoined effort to discredit this way of thinking. A conspiracy not born of fantasy, but admitted reality, where the very players of fossil fuel industries funded the very first studies into the environmental impacts of their wares, and discarded it due to the cost and difficulty involved. I also know that the industries growing in the green revolution will never make as much money, hold as much power, nor have as loud of a voice as their equivalents, and any conspiracy theory to say otherwise is blatantly false.
I believe that the shame of knowing we are doing this to ourselves blinds some people into thinking we cannot do anything, or that it is beyond our control. And I know this is false.
I know we should act now, within this lifetime, and that we have the capability, ingenuity and imagination to ensure success.
I know we can act. And I believe we should. I also believe the time should be now, for we are dangerously close to being forced to act instead of having the luxury of choice in the matter, and that by acting now, we still will see our sins broadcast into the biosphere for decades to come. But, a lifetime from now, if we act now, we can see a change. Perhaps not in our children’s lifetimes, but in our grandchildren’s.
If only we act.
Now.
