As I walked along the trail through the green today and stood under the shelter of tall cedars out of the rain, I felt a chill at the thought of the many places in our world where trees no longer live.
As I watched the sparkle of the crystal clear, ice cold stream, listened to the soft thunder from its falls and felt its cold mist on my face, I pondered upon the water wars already being waged in our South and our Southwest.
Does our world really have to be that way?
Montana Outdoors 
I am saddened by the current state of our planet. My own belief is that we must each take personal responsiblity for conserving our resources and helping to restore health to mother nature before it is too late. Issues which need to be addressed are overpopulation of the planet, dependance on fossil fuels, wasteful use of limited resources, careless farming practices, deforestation of the equatorial zones, overfishing of the seas, the contamination of everything with toxic chemicals…the list goes on an on. Education is key as is keeping an open mind to the needs of everyone and everything on the planet. A global sense of community is essential to successfully meeting the environmental and ecological challenges facing us today.
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Comment by Tabbie — June 10, 2008 @ 5:36 am
It doesn’t have to be that way, but it strikes me that change is slow. Only when the movers and shakers or the greater populace rises up does change occur. I, for one, don’t mind the high gas prices right now because I think it is motivating the masses to demand change!
I agree with Tabbie — education is key!
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Comment by Kelly — June 10, 2008 @ 8:37 am
Does it have to be? Certainly not! Right now, it’s a bit hard to see how to get from Point A (wasteful, greedy overconsumption at all levels) to Point B (sustainable, conscious action), but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible or that we shouldn’t try.
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Comment by Adam R. Paul — June 10, 2008 @ 8:39 am
Tabbie,
I agree with you and Kelly that education is a key to the changes that are required, (literally, for us to sustain, long-term, human life on this planet). But it will not be the cold, academic education now prevalent on our public schools, but the kind that used to be done in the home before so many lost the concept of man’s spirit and therefore also lost compassion for other citizens of the planet.
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Comment by montucky — June 10, 2008 @ 11:43 am
Kelly,
Yes, the gas prices are raising the attention level but I see a terrible consequence to that. The oil and energy companies (whom I personally believe are behind the rise in petroleum prices) are now using those high prices as leverage to exploit all of the sensitive areas that the interest in environmentalism had made so much progress in protecting. Big oil, big business are clear winners in that and they are now sitting back, reaping record profits and laughing at the rest of us fools: they have now gotten exactly what they always wanted.
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Comment by montucky — June 10, 2008 @ 11:59 am
Adam,
I think you’re dead right in your analysis of Point A and Point B. I wish I were as optimistic as you are is saying that the solution is possible. I’m beginning to think it’s already too late, not to say that we shouldn’t be doing our damnedest to fix it.
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Comment by montucky — June 10, 2008 @ 12:04 pm
I wish I had an answer for you. In your response to Adam you say that you’re beginning to think it’s already too late. I *so* know that feeling.
I’m coming around to the position, though, that people who love, and want to advocate for, nature and the environment can best do that by helping people see the wonder and majesty and spiritual power of it. You do a beautiful job of that here in your blog–I’m trapped in the Maryland suburbs, but through your camera lens, I get to see beauties and wonders that inspire me.
I think that the way to preserve our natural heritage is to encourage and feed and *nurture* this love from the ground up, one person at a time through whatever means we can. The people are going to have to lead and let government and industry follow along. And it’s not going to be easy to convince the people on their treadmills in the gym to get outside and take a walk. To convince the folks at home playing fishing games on their Wii to learn how to fish. But I think that’s where a difference is going to have to begin.
::bites lip::
Sorry, got a little preachy there. This is something that I’ve been giving a lot of thought to lately as I try to figure out my own role in the environmental movement.
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Comment by Sara — June 10, 2008 @ 7:38 pm
I remember hearing Steve Irwin say so many times to the effect that if you show people the beauty of nature and wild things they grow to love them and people want to protect what they love. For quite some time now that has been my attitude and effort and I intend to keep on doing it.
What concerns me most now is how rapidly the wild country is disappearing and how hard it is being attacked. There are two issues here. One, we certainly don’t want to lose the beauty of it all but maybe even more critical to mankind is that we need “x” amount of pure wild country to be able to sustain life, especially the oxygen levels we need and the water that we simply have to have. In fact, I’m beginning to think that the water issue might quickly become main force in driving conservation and environmental concerns. I sincerely hope so!
Lately I’ve gotten some very good feed back on my efforts too. I’ve had a photo featured on the Sierra Club’s “Daily Ray of Hope”, a photo of a Cottontail resides in the Lone Pine State Park just south of Kalispell, A pilot’s magazine used a photo about aerial firefighting and tomorrow one of my photos will be featured on the NewWest.net news website. I think that all helps and I’m so happy to do it!
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Comment by montucky — June 10, 2008 @ 8:24 pm