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I suspect that you may not want to read any more of this. You've heard it all before. I don't blame you. I was raised on doom and gloom, and frankly I'm sick and tired of it. I have no desire to surrender to despair and hopelessness. I've done that, been there, don't ever want to go back. Instead, I want to focus on hope and possibility.
My husband and I have tried very hard to be good parents. We've attempted to provide our daughter with love and security. We've made certain that she has her shots, physical and dental exams, and does her homework. Each night we tuck her into bed with hugs, kisses and at least one, "I love you." We've drawn up a will, and long ago began making provisions for college. But how does a person of my generation be a good parent if he or she ignores the fact that if we don't begin to take action now, there may not be much of a future for our children and grandchildren to grow into?
Kristen is eleven. According to a report by the Millennium Institute entitled, "State of our World Indicators," by the time she is thirteen, half of the worlds supply of crude oil will be gone. When she is eighteen, if we continue our current patterns of eating, there will be insufficient agricultural land to feed us all. By the time she is nineteen, one third of the world's species will have vanished forever (along with their contributions via food, medicine, etc.). Our beautiful blue planet consists of 70% water. However, what most of us don't recognize is that less than 3% of this precious liquid is fresh. If the Green Cross projections are correct, conflicts over diminishing water supplies "…will lead to significant global-scale problems…" by the time she reaches her thirty- second birthday. By the time she is thirty- three, 80% of the world's crude oil supply will be lost.
When my daughter was born, the earth's resources were already stretched thin, and yet based on the projections of Paul Erlich, an international expert on population trends, by the time she reaches her fortieth birthday, the population will be double what it was the year she entered this troubled but still beautiful world.
Today we are confronted with the painful fact (if we allow ourselves to feel it) that we live in a world in which 40,000 infants die of hunger each day. It's frightening to imagine what may confront my child the year she turns forty, when in all likelihood, she will share a world with far fewer natural resources, and twice as many people.
Many of us dream about secure futures for our children, and our own "golden" retirement years. The fact is, our children face a profoundly unstable future, and our later years may very well be far, far from golden, if we don't begin to act now.
"But what can just a few people do?" "Most people ignore what's going on, how can I really make a difference?" are common responses to frightening future projections. I said those very words for years. As a mother however, I recognize that my child can't afford for me to surrender to denial, helplessness, and passivity. The needs of our children are greater than they have ever been before. They not only must depend upon us to feed, love, educate and clothe them, we may very well be the only thing that stands between them and a dying world haunted by wars, famine, chaos, desperation, and despair of greater magnitude than ever experienced in the history of the planet.
I'm not as optimistic as I am hopeful. I believe in the tremendous power of natural processes, in the incredible resourcefulness of humankind, and above all, the love of parents for their children in every part of the world. More than a growing awareness, hard work, sacrifice, technological advances, or fear, I'm counting on our love to motivate us to do what must be done.
Looking back on the history of the United States alone, how many people believed that slavery would never be abolished? When my grandmother was a child, women weren't allowed to vote. How many people believed back then that the suffragette movement (one which took seventy long years to succeed,) was futile? At what about recent global events? Within a few remarkable years the world has witnessed the end of the cold war, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the end of Apartheid in South Africa, as well as the end of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall. How many truly believed that so much could possibly change as rapidly as it did in such a short time?
Before any major transformation, there are those who say, "it's always been this way, it's not going to change, it's hopeless" And yet it has changed again and again.
According to Duane Elgin author of "Voluntary Simplicity," it's been conservatively estimated that in the United States alone, 25 million Americans are consciously exploring new and more responsible ways of living. While that translates into only 10% of the US population, and many would say that that's not nearly enough, I maintain that it's a powerful beginning. Major societal change has always began with a small ripple. Anthropologist, Margaret Mead, once said, "never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." For the sake of our children, we can no longer afford to wait for government or God to save us. It's critical that we join the group of "thoughtful committed citizens" who are leading the way. Godspeed.
"If the people will lead, the leaders will follow."
next: Books That I Have Valued
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