Reserve some time Sunday for some somber meditation.

Thursday, April 19, 2001

Reserve some time Sunday for some somber meditation.

Although Earth Day is usually treated in terms of celebration – fun stuff like colorful worlds on T-shirts, music and other festival-like activities – we should be cognizant of the serious side: the tenuous state of our natural world, especially now that environmental regulations are being reversed daily as it seems.

Some of these reversed regulations include one that requires the mining industry to post cleanup bonds and another that would reduce arsenic content in drinking water.

President Bush, and the officials he appointed, canceled a government decree that would have demanded lower carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

The president also advocates oil drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because he considers it to be the most economical solution to the energy crisis.

There are many more examples of a stance that places more emphasis on immediate human (more accurately U.S.) economic gain than on our long suffering environment.

This is not to say, however, that Bush is some lone, radical, anti-green crusader.

In fact, a Time/CNN poll showed that while 75 percent of people surveyed consider global warming to be a "very serious" or "fairly serious" problem, only 48 percent said they would be willing to pay 25 cents more for a gallon of gasoline.

Time also reported, "while (people) are concerned about climate change, they are more fearful of seeing their electric bills soar or of losing their jobs".

This sentiment is unfortunate and difficult to overcome.

When it comes to a choice between a day-to-day enhancement of our ease of living – such as more money, or money spent on items other than fuel – it is hard to put environmental consequences first.

Further, many of us live in such a disconnect from our natural world because of things we have built on and around it, we forget our true and long-term sustenance completely depends on its health.

Thus, to say regulations protecting nature are not economically responsible ignores a fundamental fact; our health depends on the health of nature.

Ultimately, even money could not wipe away irreversible damage to the earth. So, this Earth Day start a habit of remembering what really matters.

Celebrate nature and act to protect it.