The Gifts of Mother Nature

Saving the environment saves all of us. So, when you are outdoors on a sunny day, take a good look around you and smell the flowers, watch the butterflies, hum a tune while the birds chirp, study an ant at work...notice everything that you ignored the day before. Love what you see and cherish its beauty forever.

Yes, love does make the world go 'round, and most certainly, it's a small world after all.

But, keeping it beautiful is up to all of us.

I review my music files while working on a web page. The song "Love Makes the World Go 'Round" has reminded me of how far love can extend. Family, friends and neighbors are "a given" when love is involved, but we really must look beyond the people in our lives to the world around us. We should remember, "It's a Small World, After All." And, as the title of the song on this page can imply..."How Beautiful" the world is. If only we could keep it that way...the way G-D intended.

Sadly, we have taken Nature for granted, as if the natural world was created on Earth soley for our exploitation and abuse. The ramifications have resulted in an ever increasing, long list of extinct plants and animals. And...there is no telling when we may be next on the list, where we sit at the top of Earth's fragile ecosystem. Most disturbing is what we are doing to the ozone layer, the natural protection against the Sun's cancer causing ultraviolet rays. There is undisputed, documented evidence (as illustrated above) of the huge hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica in the stratosphere, which is fifteen to thirty kilometers up in the atmosphere. This evidence should be sufficient for all industrial nations and those that are emerging in our interdependent world economy, to sit up and take notice...NOW! The ozone layer is being negatively affected elsewhere around the world, including North America. "Although production of ozone-destroying gases has been curtailed under international agreements, concentrations of the gases in the stratosphere are only now reaching their peak. Due to their long persistence in the atmosphere, it will be many decades before the ozone hole is no longer an annual occurrence," said Dr. Michael J. Kurylo, manager of the Upper Atmosphere Research Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

If you wish to read more of the interesting yet disturbing information I gleaned from the NASA Web site, click on this link

and a new window will open.

Not only are the "great nations" ignoring Nature, but we ignore the vast majority of people in the world who live on the edge of extinction themselves. Most of them live hand to mouth from scratching out an existence from the environment as well as by farming tiny plots of land. Yet, the poorest among them, whose origins trace back to the first humans to occupy their lands, have the greatest regard for the environment. Ancient customs have been handed down to these natives through the millennia, so they know the value of what exists around them, eating only what they need to nourish themselves without depleting their sources of food. They value the healing plants which are being destroyed through the scorched Earth policies foisted upon the tropical rain forests in countries around the world. These lost plants hide the secrets to the cure of our most dreaded disease, cancer, as well as cures for so many other diseases. According to the Care2.com web site, which I refer to below, "Over the last decade 113 million rain forest acres have been destroyed. Of the 3,000 plants that have anti-cancer properties, 70% grow in rain forests. Every hour, six species are lost forever."

And...the natives will become extinct with them in the process!

We ignore these people and their natural habitats with a double edged sword. We ignore them by not acknowledging their plight, and only get involved when it is in our national interest or when genocide occurs. We also ignore their knowledge of and respect for the environment, and barely accept the fact that they know more than we do about how to take care of the world around us.

Yet, we do not learn from them, just as we do not learn from history...and that will be our downfall. Just how long it will take is anyone's guess, but I know this much--it can be prevented. Our world is getting smaller and smaller every day, by virtue of where we are now--the World Wide Web. We can virtually connect to tens of millions of people around the world with clicks of the computer mouse.

Each one of us can make a difference in saving the environment by doing our small part that, cumulatively, would create an onrushing tide of influence around the world. One very important Web site that we can connect to is Care2.com. They now have 1,644,628 subscribers, no small achievement for a site that donates money to your choice of environmental concerns, yet offers everything imagineable free. They are able to do this through their advertisers, who also contribute to the site's popular "Race for the Rain Forest" and "Race for the Big Cats" which are free to join. In the first "Rain Forest" race, nearly 2,000 acres of endangered forests in Latin America were saved. They are now in their third race which, so far, has donated $182,057 saving 5,202 acres. The second race for the endangered cats--the Tiger, Jaguar and Snow Leopard, has saved 15,296 sq. mi. of their habitats with a goal of 25,000 sq. mi. The first "Big Cats" race saved almost 12,000 sq. mi. of habitats. I urge each and every one of you who has taken the time to read this all the way through to log onto their site, register and join the races. Just click on the rotating Earth below the poem to register on their Home Page or click on the rain forest logo or the Leopard to join the races...

and then feel good about making a difference in the world!

Our planet belongs to a Higher Power...
This is not our Earth.
The same Spirit that created the heavens
Also gave us birth.
We should appreciate the life He gave us
And all other living beings.
We must return in favor to Him
To keep His Earth more clean.
Our time here is very short
With an unknown future beyond.
We may pass but others will come,
So the Earth must survive and go on.
We want the best for our children,
So we must strive, each in our own way
To assure the best gift we can give...
The chance for another day.
So give a hoot and don't pollute.
Don't throw litter on the highway,
Be smart, do your part,
And make each day an Earth Day.
I wrote this little poem myself
Not to gain a dime.
So go to Care2.com...
I'm sure you have the time.

Thank you, Shana, for your lovely contribution to my web page. I am grateful for your thoughtfulness.