Saving the Planet for Our Children

Late spring and early summer has seen devastating, widespread fires in the West, unrelenting heat and drought in the Midwest and incredibly damaging storms and heat in the East. It is as though Mother Nature has taken our measure and found us wanting. This was also the time when our grandchildren, ages 4 and 7, visited our home. I never fail to be impressed by their exuberance and unwavering trust in their adult caregivers to do the right thing. The current state of our environment gives me cause to wonder if we have done the right thing and what the future holds for these children.

We may speculate as to the cause of our environmental calamities, be it human-caused global warming or simply unpredictable but natural cyclic changes in weather and climate. However, regardless of the cause, there are things we can do to benefit the country as a whole. Some possibilities:

Switch to fuel efficient vehicles and use mass transportation when possible.

Design new homes and refit existing homes with the most energy-efficient technologies available.

Gravitate toward wind, solar and nuclear energy to generate electricity.

These changes alone would reduce dependence on foreign oil, improve the economy, mitigate human-caused global warming and environmental degradation, and providing a brighter future for our children.

Robert J. Boes

http://thegazette.com/2012/07/17/save-the-environment-for-our-children/#ixzz2tzHDHZlp