Those that know me have heard me say “I love where I live”. That is because I am surrounded by trees, shrubs, and other plant life. So today, as I was doing my daily walk in this environment, I thought about a social media post my cousin made the other day and my response. Also what flooded through my mind were the words from my last post in regards to good versus evil. I am trying to remind myself of these words daily and am trying even harder to recognize them in my actions, words spoken, and tone. That said, maybe we should not forget our individuality or individual responsibilities when we look for global solutions.
Her post read as follows: “So, global warming and climate change are such huge problems, there seems to be no solution. However, instead of being overwhelmed and feeling helpless, we can all make one small change because every little bit helps. I am going to focus on using only cloth bags at stores from now on, though I will use my plastic coated reusable bags until they break as well. Then only cloth bags for me. That is my focus. What is yours?”
Before, I let you know my reply, I want to preface it with a few things. First, whether I believe these exist or not is irrelevant. I do believe that worldwide, each one of us has a hand in damage caused to our planet and each other and we need to find ways of existing without causing so much harm. Second, I think I may agree with my cousin when she says we can all make small changes to heal the planet. Third, the more laws I try to read, and the more research I try to do, makes me ever more skeptic of big governments, big banks, and/or big business. And lastly, the one thing the religious and non-religious among us should agree on is the need for plants.
Here is how I replied: “One of the biggest helps to too much carbon is, guess what, plants. They need it and we need their oxygen. Man’s contribution to these problems is that we deforested and do not replant at the same rate. So plant a garden, that will help. If you take down a tree, plant a tree. And let’s come up with a solution to waste, that for sure does not belong in our National Parks, on our country roads, or on someone’s property who has acreage. Trust me, I made a similar comment about what we all do to our environment and the need in trying to find ways of doing things without hurting the planet. But, with that said, me giving my money to a multimillionaire or a government that uses my money to buy and sell carbon credits, does absolutely nothing for my planet, except make rich men and women richer. Each one of us becoming tiny farmers does much more good.”
As always I ask you to leave your thoughts and comments. I ask that you be productive (good) and not destructive (evil) in doing this as there is already too much hatred in the world. While leaving, I leave you with the following thoughts:
“until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven’t done a thing. You are just talking.” ~ Wangari Maathai..
The non-religious that believe in science should recognize in my reply the process of photosynthesis. Plants use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water and their by-product oxygen.
For the Hindu, everything in the universe is sacred and whatever grows is more so.
Buddhism considers plants to be one-facultied life forms; plants are living organisms which grow in the earth and have the ability to convert sunlight into the energy they need for growth.
Genesis 1:29-30 — Then God said. “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you.”
Quran (Surah Al-A raf, 58) — From the land that is clean and good, by the will of its Cherisher, springs up produce, after its kind: but from the land that is bad, springs up nothing but that which is niggardly: thus do we explain the signs by various to those who are grateful.
The Midrash in Kohelet Rabbah teaches: “When God created the first man he took him and showed him all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to him, ‘see my works, how beautiful and praiseworthy they are. And everything that I created, I created it for you. Be careful not to spoil or destroy my world – for if you do, there will be nobody after you to repair it.'”
Try to plant a plant no matter where you are and let us try to begin to heal.
I was thinking about the global warming hoopla this evening. And then along comes a new blog post .
CO2 is good for plants. They inhale it and exhale oxygen which is good for us.
Global warming is a hoax. It matters not the amount of any particular gas in the atmoshere, it matters on the pressure on the gas.
The higher the pressure, the higher the temperature. This is true for every gas there is.
Earth’s artmosheric pressure is 14.7 psia and Venus is 90 times that. Venus is much hotter at 800 degrees or so. Pressure temperarure relationship, look it up.
We are still exiting the last ice age and heading toward the next. But in that continental drift and it’s effect on ocean currents have a much larger effect than humans.
But, still plant a garden. Not only do you grow food, you help produce oxygen to breath.