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WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IS IT?
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| OUT
OF SIGHT |
Too many people have the attitude that what
they can’t see doesn’t really exist. If pollution or an ecological
threat is not visible in their own community, they believe their lives
will not be affected. This is a convenient but dangerous concept. |
What if there were another threat in the form
of someone like Hitler? It is obvious that he would cause enormous
damage and suffering in the world. Would it be prudent to ignore
him and his conquest of the world until he actually invaded our own little
section of the planet? For eventually he will invade our country
if his power goes unchecked. This type of inactivity would invite
catastrophe. By the time we decide to respond, it may be too late
to counteract the threat.
The same principle can be applied to environmental
threats. If we wait for our immediate environment to be affected
before we take any corrective action, the problems may be insurmountable.
It is only by constant and vigorous early efforts that global problems
can be successfully attacked and thereby controlled.
| IF
I ONLY HAD TIME |
How many times have you passed an impromptu
dump site on the side of the road and thought, “Someone should do something
about that.”? How many
times have you put off something you know
should be done because you just “don’t have the time” to do it right now? |
I am ashamed to admit that I am often one of
these people. We lead such hectic, complex lives that we often feel
we have no time to accomplish our normal routines – much less do something
that requires a little bit of extra effort on our parts. I cannot
count the times I have said, “I’m going to start recycling tomorrow.”
Yet tomorrow never arrives because it would take so much effort on my part
to initiate the activity.
Unless we discipline ourselves to take a little
time each day to do something towards preserving our environment, we will
one day find ourselves covered in a mound of debris of our own making.
Yet, I have no doubt that we will still have the audacity to wonder how
this event came to pass.
|
I’M ONLY ONE PERSON
|
The environmental problems which
we face seem overwhelming. It’s easy to think that
the problems are too big for us to tackle on our
own. Yet, it is irresponsible and selfish of us
to “pass the buck” to the other person and expect them to make the efforts
to effect change. The problems we have caused were not instigated
by one person but by all of us as a group. Therefore, we all have
a responsibility to do our part in finding a solution.
If each individual makes his best effort in his own life to progress
towards the goal, the combination of all our efforts will be worthwhile
and effective. |
|
IT’S OUR RESPONSIBILITY
|
We do not have an indefinite amount of time
to correct or control environ-
mental problems. The further the process
continues, the more work we have to do to compensate.
Already we have put into motion a chain of events which
will proceed for years even if all our detrimental activities
came screeching to a halt tomorrow. That makes it all the more imperative
that we act NOW before we have caused any further damage. The problem
is not in whether we are doing enough to make a change but in whether we
are doing it quickly enough to reverse the damage we have already done. |