By Glenn Wilson, Tallangatta Valley
Environmental protection laws have been enacted into legislation to protect ‘the environment’. I say ‘the environment’ as opposed to ‘our environment’ even though it is our environment, but it is also the environment of all living things on this our Earth. It is with all life, and indeed the life of the Earth with which we are bound to share, and protect for now, and for the future.
Some misguided people believe that the environment can be sold. It can’t. Some people believe that the environment will provide its bounty to humans indefinitely. This is wrong, as the environment is finite. Many people have little respect for the environment, which in essence is like saying that they have little respect for their own personal health. The two are inextricably linked.
Some people believe that the environmental protection laws that are a part of our government are too onerous and get in the way of the exploitation of the bounty the environment appears to possess. This is very dangerous thinking and should be stopped in its tracks immediately. These people are the sharp end of the huge problems humanity faces. They seem to have no long term solutions to repair or halt the damage and extinctions we have caused.
It is unacceptable that species of life are still being made extinct just so we can keep our GDPs in the black. It is wrong that our current ways of life leaves huge holes in the ground, rivers dry, the ocean polluted, the air unfit for the lungs of living creatures, the soil poisoned and denuded of its health and minerals and the glaciers retreating just so we can go on and enjoy our ‘standard of living’.
It is time to get rid of the enemies of the environment and to stop paying lip service to the environment. LED globes and electric cars are just not going to cut it. Our current ‘systems’ need a radical makeover, and that includes our social, economic, government, banking, religious and anything else that stands in the way of true sustainable living.
If you value your future and the future of your children and grandchildren then it’s time to stand up for the environment and let your voice be heard and your actions be witnessed.