A new chance for a better future

Today we are being given a chance to change direction for a better future. I have no idea of the meaning of life (if there even is one) or why we walk this earth but I do know that to do so is a supreme privilege.  To be given the gift of life is to be given so much: to see the sun rise over a new day and set over an old one taking with it countless memories. To fall in love. To hold a newborn. To laugh. To enjoy having a future.

But humans are putting all this at risk through greed, selfishness, neglect, arrogance, hatred, prejudice ... 

 

Humans have always advanced, discovering new ways to improve their lives.  Prehistoric man learnt how to control fire, he burnt coal and he made things.  But today we now know that we cannot continue in the same way.  The weight of man-made materials is more than the entire weight of ALL life on the planet and the weight of just one product, plastic, is more than all the living animals on land and sea.  All this to support just one species.

We can no longer use the excuse of ignorance. We know that the way humanity is living is not sustainable and we must alter our path or destroy our future. The earth doesn't need us. Other species don't need us and they will continue long after we are consigned to history with our greatest accolades being that we were the shortest lived species on earth and that we were responsible directly for the extiction of too many other species to count. We will be denying future generations the gift of life.  But look into the trusting eyes of a newborn child and ask yourself if you have the right to take away their future. Then look into the eyes of every single living creature on earth and listen to the wind blowing through the trees or grass. Do we have the right to destroy all this because we are too selfish to change our lifestyles?

I am writing this on January 20th 2021 and I suspect many around the world will feel that we took the tiniest of steps in the right direction today. Others may have felt the same thing on November 7th 2020.  That was the day we knew that America had voted in a new president and today he will become President Joe Biden.  Donald Trump, who has done so much environmental damage over his 4 years in the White House will no longer have the power to support and promote increasingly damaging environmental policies. I am not saying that President Biden is the answer to all our problems and many of these are problems that each of us must sort ourselves, but our future feels just a little less precarious now he and Vice-President Kamala Harris lead America. And remember, as America chose to alter it's path, so each and every one is us must also choose to change. We can make a safer future for our children if we choose to. We really can.