Climate change has been declared a hoax.
Oil companies are being subsidized to the tune of billions of dollars.
Some countries are fishing illegally...
...prompting other countries to go the extreme of sinking any illegal fishing boats they see.
The sunniest places around can't have solar panels...
...while people are punished for collecting rainwater.
All this and more is why it's extremely important to pay attention and be more proactive about safeguarding the environment for future generations.
I remember my late aunt as being highly conscious of her surroundings and of the environment. She spent her youth during the Great Depression years and learned what it meant to be frugal and to go without. After raising five children and caring for her husband who eventually died from cancer, she moved from the city of Toronto out to a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere on 250 acres of land.
After taking pains to repair the cedar rail fences around the house to keep animals out, she grew her own vegetables and stored them in a cold room. She allowed her neighbour's beef cattle to graze across her property in exchange for packages of fresh meat whenever an animal was slaughtered. Food scraps
were composted or taken to a field a fair distance from the house and buried. Paper and cardboard were cut into strips and used as kindling for the wood stove during the winter. In her house, very little was wasted.
Nowadays I can walk down the street on garbage day and come across all sorts of items that could be repaired, reused, or donated to someone in need. Instead they are tossed aside. There are people who actually pick through neighbourhood garbage for items of value to repair or resell.
There have been a few occasions where even I have picked up kids' toys left in the trash and repaired them before taking them to a donation center.
I will never understand how our precious oil resources continue to be used to make plastic toys for children, which become useless and not recyclable when they break. And don't get me started on how often I see empty drink bottles or juice boxes just tossed into the street.
We have a long way to go.
Definitely a long way to go. But the good news is younger generations are much more conscious of these issues. That doesn't excuse those of us who are older, but it gives hope that more will be done moving forward. Recycling, repurposing, buying used, etc. are all things my kids are growing up with and they don't know anything different.
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