My two cents: Once again we in the Greenbrier Valley are faced with decisions on how to act in the aftermath of an environmental and economic crisis. Our world, large and small, global and local, is such a reactionary world these days, maybe we could take a minute to think before we speak, before we whip up an angry mob on social media that will only wear itself out because it has no focus, no real purpose other than to blame. Maybe we could take more than a few minutes and take a look at what surrounds us, right now, in our homes and offices. What are we willing to give up? The computer or phone youre on right now? The desk? Couch? TV? The rug? We all use products that require petroleum - including diesel fuel. We wear shoes, drive cars, ride bikes that use tires, play our CD and DVDs, have roofing on our homes and use refrigerators, knit with synthetic yarns, use ink pens, burn candles, use lotion. Drink from the plastic water bottles we all just bought. The list, quite literally, goes on and on and on and on. We want these things. We demand them. In this beautiful state we choose to live on some of these roads that are not at all a match for large trucks. Yet we want our home heating oil, even if it means a delivery truck filled with oil traveling 20 miles to the top of a mountain following a stream the entire way. We want the lights to stay on, even if it means a seven man crew cutting trees in over 100 degree heat for 7 days after a storm to get it back on. We want our clean water, even though many of us use water unthinkingly, luxuriously, every single day. We want our streams clean, yet drive by valleys and streams and see trash and couches and tires dumped by our sparkling streams and dont even slow down, let alone stop to pick up even a piece of the trash. We might, maybe, think Someone should take care of that. Someone should. Who is someone? And we want someone, anyone please, to take responsibility for anything and everything that disrupts our first-world lives. We want them to pay for lost wages, lost water, inconvenience. But maybe, before we start blaming anyone for an uber dump into our precious water source we could take a step back. Think. Breathe. Was the driver of that truck that spilled diesel okay? Was the road icy? Was it an accident? Will he miss work, or even lose his job? Will we vilify the driver of the truck? Would you want your name in the news if you were the driver? And maybe, most importantly, think how can we be less of the problem?
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 16:33:00 +0000
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