Trample the World! We're in charge!

Just going through my news-update emails this morning, I came across Bush's plans to destroy what's left of his/the planet.

This is just plain scary!

As we drove around locally this weekend, I couldn't help noticing the signs of nature in trouble around us - fields littered with plastic bags, places badly eroded, a layer of pollution hanging over the sea, wholesale clearing of previously indigenous bush for rich men's houses. The flora in this part of the world is in very real danger of extinction - and it's unique to this part of the world, found nowhere else. The biggest threat is urban sprawl and man-made pollution. Rivers are sluggish, stinky and poisonous by the time they reach the sea - a mere 20km or so from their source. Habitats are destroyed completely to make way for "informal settlements", which then further destroy more distant habitats through their waste.

And that's just here.

What Bush's power-group is about to do is much bigger, much worse, and much more potentially damaging not only for his country, but the rest of the planet. We're rapidly running out of greenery to filter our chemicals and return good air to our lungs. The hunger for oil and the huge supertankers that transport it are wiping out the seas. Demand for cheap, throw-away products is using up our resources and returning only unbiodegradeable waste to the earth.

Sometimes I question how much more our planet can stand before grinding to a messy, disease-infested, drought-ridden halt.

I can only wonder at the actions of the Big Guys in power, the world over. What a positive difference they could make, if only they chose to! And yet they appear unconcerned - interested only in exploitation and using up during their lifetime. No concern for future generations who have to deal with the disaster they inherit.

I realize not everyone thinks like I do. Among my friends I'm sometimes an anomaly - most don't care about their patch of earth or the creatures that find refuge there, they use up water and electricity without a second thought and exist on throw-away products.

And it scares me. I don't want my son's generation growing up in a world gone bad, not knowing what pollution-free air is, nor having a respect for our God-given creation. I'm doing my best to instill in my son a sense wonder in the large and the small of nature, a sense of respect and responsibility.

But it may not be enough...