I read about climate change – the rise in temperatures, deadlines to avoid disaster, the perils of the future. And I wonder. I cannot afford solar panels for the house. I cannot afford an electric vehicle. I used to commute by bike, but now I live too far away.
So I am inclined to put climate change under a bigger umbrella – care for God’s creation or care for the earth. That is what this is really all about in my mind.
And what weighs on me is that for all this awareness of climate change…. for all this concern over this earth… why do we have so much garbage on our streets? I can do something about that. And that is an issue that gets to me – for all the concern about climate change and the care of the earth – why have all this garbage.
I read about the mountain climbers in the Himalayas and I am appalled at all the “stuff” they leave behind on the mountain. I would presume these are folks who appreciate the mountains…
I bike along country roads. When you bike you see what is there more easily than you might if you are in a car going faster. One day I stopped to take a picture of a beautiful mountain stream – gurgling majestically with the March thaw. But first, I had to clear away all the cans, bottles and trash.
Each March I say – why not me? I take garbage bags and pick up the trash on our hilly dirt road. Gary helps me. We do this before the poison ivy shows up and the bugs take over. We fill up 10-20 bags over 4 miles. Then we do one of the main roads in town. Last year it was 100 bags over 4 miles, plus assorted tires, mattresses, tv screens, a pressure washer….
Usually someone drives by and thanks us. One day a fellow stopped and offered to take my garbage bag to the dump. Never had anyone stop and help pick up.
Please contemplate this as we read about climate change. There is something we can do. And it is March.