Trees and birds and bunnies…

Like most people these days I worry about the environment.  What will be left of this world that has nurtured my generation by the time my future grandchildren are my age and even beyond that?

Growing up during the cold war with the feeling of being on borrowed time always in the back of my mind, waiting for someone to push that button and obliterate everyone and everything I knew to be, I came to realize that I was okay with the idea that one day I would eventually leave this world, but I could not accept that while I might be gone, so too might the trees and the birds that nested and sang from them, the sunny days, the green grass and the bunny rabbits that frolicked about.  I found the idea that those things would be gone too, probably forever, far more unsettling than the idea of my own demise.

Of course my mother always said I was rather dramatic.  Perhaps so.

Then the wall came down, and the Russians found democracy and everything seemed calm.  But lately, with all the talk in the media about the environment, I’ve found myself thinking about the trees, and the birds, and the bunnies again.

It’s overwhelming, isn’t it; to think of something as simple as that plastic shopping bag holding your bread and milk as sinister?  We almost all need to work, requiring most of us need to commute to our jobs, and in doing so we usually find ourselves contributing to carbon emissions.  Public transportation is a great alternative for some, but most communities don’t offer a service that is far-reaching and frequent enough to be effective.  And, with the extreme range of temperatures and weather conditions we now seem to experience courtesy of global warming, (+40C to -40C here in southern Ontario), it’s a struggle to find just the right balance between staying cool enough in the summer and warm enough in the winter for us to be able to function but without abusing or overusing energy supplies.

Actually, I had a good teacher when it comes to turning the thermostat down.  Let’s suffice it to say that the environment wasn’t exactly my dad’s reason for doing so, but when I was a kid it seemed every day when he came home from work he would ask if there was any mail, turn down the volume on the TV, and lower the thermostat.

There’s also a concern about water use and pollution issues.  Will there be enough water in the years to come and if so, based on a recent CNN headline, will it be so filled with chemicals and drugs, that we will be unable to use it?  This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Speaking of icebergs, how about those polar bears?

Makes your head hurt doesn’t it?

Times are a changin’ as they say.  We all need to be inventive, think out of the box, and make a few sacrifices and compromises to our lifestyles.

As a virtual assistant I know I’m helping the cause.  By working from my home in my own office, I’ve eliminated my need to commute to a job, and my clients’ don’t need to maintain a heated or air conditioned, lighted workspace for me.  Small changes, but good changes, to the way business can operate.  All steps in the right direction so that maybe my future grandchildren at my age can still enjoy the trees, and the birds, and the bunnies as they frolic about on green grass in the sunshine.