What are you prepared to do?
Despite countless topics like the federal budget, inflation, climate change and several top-of-mind issues, we are choosing to issue a challenge this week.
On Monday, April 22, millions of Canadians will join with billions around the world to celebrate Earth Day.
For over 50 years, inhabitants of this amazing planet have rallied to eliminate pollution and cut down on practices that negatively impact soil, waterways and air quality.
While much is left to be done on these fronts, some headway has been made. Prosperity doesn’t have to be forged on the back of pollution and poor business practices.
Numerous green thumbs have expressed a sense of eagerness to get into the garden in recent days. Crocuses and daffodils are coming alive, as are buds on trees which will turn into a canopy of green very soon. Gardening does extend past the visual.
The feel of soil, cool and wet, will soon take on a texture and temperature for seeds and plants to get their start. Weeds, those rascals, will compete for attention very shortly.
And the smells – perhaps the one thing that really signals spring (for us anyway) – will soon permeate yards, gardens and meadows alike. Soil is life and from that pungent first whiff of spring when the final traces of snow go away, all that sprouts from the ground will add to a season of splendor.
So, what is the challenge this week? Before Monday arrives, let’s do our part for the environment locally.
There’s a short window to spruce up the parks and walkways in every nook and cranny of Wellington County.
Even the sideroads and country lanes, where residents can bag up litter that will soon become overgrown by vegetation.
Appreciate what we have – and do your part today.
Sorrow overseas
In keeping with this idea of making the world a better place, we have been preoccupied in recent weeks with the notion of waste.
War in the Middle East and Ukraine still rages on. The latest on that front was a series of drones and missiles fired from Iran towards Israel. The dynamics of such activities are explained away by military experts, diplomatic experts and talking heads, here and around the world.
But, what about the people?
We live an affluent lifestyle in the west. Yes, we have those who suffer, but for the most part things are good. Imagine for a moment living in the most basic of structures only to see it reduced to rubble with the drop of a bomb.
We may view such tenements as substandard, but for poorer countries this is someone’s home. There is little doubt in our mind that parents do their best and are proud of their meager possessions, humble as they are.
While we talk in Canada about housing and modern-day needs like walk-in closets, fancy countertops and pot lights, a good part of the world has so little. To see senseless destruction is to view waste of the most egregious kind.
It is disheartening. The suffering is hard to comprehend.
