Earth Hour

I've been bouncing around different blogs and sites reading the debates about "Earth Hour" last Saturday.  Did it do any good?  Probably not. It's symbolic not a solution. 

I don't know If Al Gore and David Suzuki are right about global warming but the Southern Ontario I live in now aint the Southern Ontario I grew up in.  Few years ago I heard it mentioned by someone who worked for Environment Canada that in 30 years  they'll be growing peaches in Orillia.

Since moving north of the city..and I'm not afraid to admit this...I've become a  tree hugger.  I hate cutting down trees but if I have to I'll plant 2 more to replace it.  One thing there is no debate about...no flora, no fauna.  We need plants to survive.  They don't need us.

12 years ago I would drive north on my way home from work. 12 years ago Wonderland was in the middle of nowhere.  Highway 7 was the jumping off point to rural Ontario.  Farm fields on both side of the 400.  Now?  Those farm fields are subdivisons. King Side road is the new jump to the country.

12 years ago I'd go out to my car in the middle of the night to go to work.  On clear nights I'd just stand there for a couple of minutes and stare up at the pitch black sky from horizon to horizon and look at the stars.  I remember one morning I looked up...and said...."lord 'tunderin"...that's Orion's belt. First time I ever saw it.  I can still see Orion's belt and a lot of other stars and planets but the horizons aren't black any more.  North...I can see the lights of Barrie. West...the lights of Alliston.  Doesn't feel like the country I moved to.  Yea I know, it's progress and of course more tax dollars for local government. But for me it's like a loss of innocense. 

I have no idea if global warming is real. From what I've read we may just be going through one of the thousands...(who knows...maybe millions)...of weather cycles in the earth's history.  They know that the Saharah Desert was once alive with vegatation.  I've read that the vikings took cattle with them to Greenland because at the time the coast of Greenland really was green.  So maybe the weather is like your teenage kid, just going through a phase. 

What we can't do is continue to poison the planet.  I've seen articles that claim cancer rates have gone up 600% since 1900 which is just after the explosion of the Industrial Revolution.  Coincidence?  I think not.

I miss the city for a lot of reasons. I don't miss the noise, the congestion, the traffic and the concrete.  I never thought much about nature when I lived there.  Now I think about it every day and when you hear the phrase...we have to live in balance with nature....it's true.  I'm not suggesting that you become a tree hugger but every once in a while when you drive by a red maple or a blue spruce...give 'em a nod.