Environmentalism For Everyone

I think that everything important I know about the environment I have learned from my Best Imaginary Friend Marigolds. She has some great stuff below on the environment, and I always think of calling her first when I have questions about making the correct environmental decision. I'm not as passionate about the environment as Marigolds, she has a true love for the earth and all of its creatures. I tend to think of myself as more of a practical environmentalist, my view is that we have depend on the earth for our existence and so it only makes sense to want to breathe clean air, and drink water without all of the chemicals, and keep the supply of food free from poisons. Anyone who breathes, eats, or needs water to survive should be an environmentalist, it's the only sensible position to take.

While I'm sort of lukewarm about endangered species, (I'm not a fan of wildlife, wild animals kind of freak me out) I think that we shouldn't drive them out of the places they live. As we learn from past mistakes, we realize just how dependent all life is on other forms of life. Our mistakes of ruining the natural landscape because it happens to get in the path of that new subdivision we want to build are coming full circle when we face the consequences of removing swamps and wetlands during the hurricane season. I'm not a fan of alligators, but they've been around a lot longer than we have, and must serve some function in the ecosystem. I'm totally cool with protecting wild animals, but I choose to live in the city where there aren't any.

It's not surprising that there are conservative environmentalists, the dangers humans face as a result of modern industrialization will harm everyone, no matter what the party or organization. The rise in temperature will cause glaciers to melt, the severe weather patterns will cause billions in damage. Whether you live in a waterfront mansion, or an impoverished fishing village, that storm will destroy whatever is in its path. And even though those of us in wealthy nations are able to afford bottled water, the water that we use to irrigate farms does not come from Perrier, and the water given to livestock finds its way to us anyway, because of the way that all biological life is interconnected. The chronic asthma that city children develop doesn't only hurt Democrats; all of us breathe the same polluted air and are vulnerable to the same lung disease.

It shouldn't matter if you're a screaming Commie, or a NeoNazi, if you are a human you should be worried about the very dangerous condition of the planet. It doesn't surprise me to find environmentalists in every state and every country, it only surprises me that the issue of climate change is not on the front page of every newspaper in every country. It transcends all other issues and ignoring it as the Republicans do is only making it worse. The economy and the NASDAQ will cease to matter when drought causes food to become scarce, and clean water is in short supply. It won't matter if gay people get to marry or not, when the polar ice melts, it's going to flow right into your back yard and carry your house away whether you're gay or straight, Christian or Jewish.

Everyone should be concerned about the planet, what surprises me is why anyone would ever vote Republican at all when you look at their environmental record. But trust a Crunchy Conservative? They are electing the very people pushing to drill into that huge chunk of ice so they can extract more of the stuff that warms the planet. These are the guys that we will be cursing while we look for higher ground and watch those nice retirement homes float out to sea. Any Republican who is concerned about the environment and the future health of their children ought take a walk on the wild side and vote Democrat. Republicans shouldn't be afraid of us gay people, we won't make a pass at them, we just like to flirt.

The Democrats are the only chance we have (oh my god, how scary is that?). By the time the Republicans stop taking money from the big corporations that pay to be able to dump chemicals in the air and water, we will be shovelling out of a snow storm in July.

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