Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Into The Void with John Miller

Anti-Earth Day?

While scanning channels Friday, I happened across C-Span. This is nothing new as C-Span is one of the stations offered by the low-rent, but high cost cable company servicing Gurdon.

The program on was "Anti-Earth Day." It caught my attention and I returned to C-Span as I had passed in while channel surfing. I was appalled at the speaker who suggested the wanton destruction of the planet in the name of capitalism should be defended and is a good thing.

This tripe on the day before Earth Day, which was April 22, for everyone's information.

Needless to say, I was unable to watch much of this propaganda. I couldn't listen to the speaker whine about how poorly big business and industry is being treated just because they have a tendency to rape the planet, plunder its resources and destroy what's left to make a few bucks for themselves and their stockholders.

The suggestion was business and industry should be allowed to do what it wants, when it wants and how it wants with no government regulation or interference, AND no concern for the planet or those who happen to inhabit it.

Well, gee, how dare we live on a planet where someone could make money and stand in their way just because we want clean, safe drinking water, clean air which we can't see or cut with a dull knife, tropical rain forests left alone to help heal the ozone layer, and the oceans to be unpolluted to provide food and oxygen for the world. I feel bad for being so selfish and standing in the way of "progress."

For those who missed the point, the previous paragraph was simply me being sarcastic. The Earth, our home, our only home, is literally screaming in pain because if man's indifference to nature.

Since the alleged first coming of Christ man has been talking about Armageddon  the end of the world at the hands of God. Guess what? At the rate man's going, we

ain't gonna have to wait for God to destroy the Earth, we'll do it for him and it won't take much longer.

In the past century water usage has increased 600 percent. The strain on the aquifers is showing as water tables across the nation are lower than ever before.

We are destroying wetlands to make way for cities. Our farmlands have been worked to death, even though there are fewer farmers than ever in the world's history. The chemicals used for fertilization and pest control are killing the soil.

Then there's acid rain, oil spills, air pollution from vehicles using a carbon-based petrochemical fuel product (gasoline) and a host of other evil man is doing to his "home?".

The vast majority of Earth's ills have been caused by GREED. Yes, greed is a bad thing and there is such a thing as ENOUGH. Think about it.

Ask yourself what you can do to help the planet. How about RECYCLING? Jump on your city council and quorum court members to institute a recycling program. Grants are available for such projects and it helps reduce the waste being buried in landfills.

What about walking for short trips to the store or neighbors or friends instead of driving. Walking is about the most perfect and easiest form of exercise there is. By walking instead of driving we help prevent air pollution and save the fossil fuels. We also save money and get in better physical condition.

Here's an idea  QUIT THROWING GARBAGE OUT OF VEHICLE WINDOWS. Not only is it unsightly and unsanitary, it's illegal. Anyone throwing trash out of their vehicle should be required by law to pick it up with their teeth, while crawling along on their hands and knees. Too extreme? I don't think it goes far enough.

Not hold business and industry responsible for the damage they do to the planet, what a joke? What an insult? What gall? What stupidity?

This kind of thinking is what caused the problems we have now. It all goes back to the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution when factories first sprang up and began spewing filth into the air and dumping waste into the rivers, lakes and streams. It's been downhill for the ecology since then.

We need to remember all progress isn't good. In fact, most so-called "progress" today isn't good at all, it's horrible.

By "progressing" with technology we are ceasing to be humans. We are forgetting the value of interpersonal relationships (friends to the lay readers). Most of us don't know our neighbors as well as we did when we were children. We don't share our lives with one another as we once did.

Life has become all about "ME, ME, ME" instead of "we and us."

Tell you what. Go next door, get your neighbor and plant a tree. Have a good talk while you're doing it. Find out how much you have in common and help the planet. You'll feel much better in the long run for doing it.

Meanwhile, business and industry should be held even more responsible for the harm they are causing to the Earth. Business and industry should pick up the tab for cleaning up the messes they make, not the taxpayers.

Pollution laws should be stricter and the search for alternative energy sources be encouraged by the government.

Then, when the end finally does arrive, we can go knowing we did all we could to protect the planet and help its residents.