Happy Earth Day 2019
Happy Earth Day 2019!
I am one of “those people!”
You know, one of “those” who doesn’t believe in global warming.
There, I’ve said it! I just don’t. I can’t wrap my head around celebrities who flit around on their personal jets screaming GLOBAL WARMING! whilst emitting fossil fuels at an alarming rate. They aren’t willing to give up their luxurious lifestyles, yet they’re DEMANDING that the rest of the world believe their hypocrisy and for us to change our daily lives based solely on their rants. Nope. It just doesn’t add up and personally I think it’s a load of crap. A scam on people in general.
However, that being said, I do believe in nature. I agree with keeping our world clean and in the pristine state in which God created it. We live in a beautiful world and it’s our responsibility to appreciate it and keep it nice for future generations. It’s somewhat like our home…we clean our homes because we don’t want to live in filth but also, we’re proud of it and proud to show it off. We perform maintenance and upkeep because we want our homes to last a long time. The same with nature. We want our future generations to be able to enjoy the outdoors and be able to appreciate it’s beauty the way we do.
What exactly IS “Earth Day” you ask?
Well, officially “it’s an annual event celebrated on April 22.
Worldwide, various events are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It was first celebrated in 1970, and now includes events in more than 193 countries.”
The “idea” for the first Earth Day, according to the website www.earthday.org:
“The idea for a national day to focus on the environment came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media; persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair; and recruited Denis Hayes from Harvard as national coordinator. Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land. April 22, falling between Spring Break and Final Exams, was selected as the date.
On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.
Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. By the end of that year, the first Earth Day had led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. “It was a gamble,” Gaylord recalled, “but it worked.”
So basically…it started out as a movement!
I’m all about movements when I believe they’re justified but the movement I’m most passionate about is the movement to get off your butt, as a parent, and get your children interested in something beside electronics and video games.
Two things irritate me.
The first is litter. I hate going out in the woods and finding beer cans or basic trash because someone is too lazy to put it where it belongs. It makes my hair stand on end when I find beer cans because that means someone is out there hunting in the same woods I am… DRUNK! That’s scary. Really scary. But what aggravates me more is that every piece of hunting gear I own has pockets in it. DUDE, FIND A POCKET AND PUT YOUR TRASH IN ONE!!!! Good grief!!!! Let’s keep it clean out there! I ain’t your mama, coming behind you to pick up your mess!
The second gripe I have is when parents that let their kids play video games or electronics instead of taking them outside and teaching them life skills. I can’t stand that. Sorry but I can’t. Fresh air, people! It’s called FRESH AIR! We have a big, beautiful world just waiting for them to explore and they’re inside with their noses glued to a violent video game. And then parents wonder why we’ve got school shootings? Parents are against guns but allowing their children to play these horrific games. If you’re going to let them shoot guns online then you should probably be taking them out in the woods teaching them gun safety and how to hunt for food. Whether parents believe it or not, knowing where our food comes from is important and how to actually provide it for ourselves and future families is a life skill that EVERYONE needs to learn.
I believe having a day to remember our earth is important because I believe we need to take care of it and preserve it for future generations. But I am also an advocate of maintaining it and using its resources to make us self-sufficient in a world that wants us to be dependent on our neighboring countries. I am thankful that I am an avid hunter and know that the meat I provide, through the animals I harvest, is the most organic meat there is. I am thankful for my love of nature and being outdoors but I’m MOST thankful for knowing HOW to provide for my family in ways I could have only learned from being taught by someone who cared enough to take the time to teach me.
Let’s celebrate EARTH DAY by setting the example. Get kids outdoors and into nature and teach them how to appreciate this big, beautiful world we are living in. Their minds are sponges that absorb everything they spend time soaking up. Are video games and cell phones really what we want to have them waste their minds on? My answer is a resounding NO!
My hope, for the up and coming generations, is that we as parents and grandparents wake up and get this car out of the ditch by taking our most valuable resources, our children, and turn them onto a world that needs to be explored…by THEM.
SET THE EXAMPLE!!!
Happy Earth Day 2019,
Kelly
(Photo Credits by Prairie Wind Photography– Check out their page on FB.
