Why It Is Important to Care For The Environment
~ Craig Dominguez ~
The other day, as I
was preparing to go to the store, I happened to recall a question put to me by my good
friend Kamal some years ago. The question was, "Why is it important to care for the
environment?" It actually gave me pause as I adjusted my oxygen mask on my way out of
the house. I continued to think on this question as I exited the airlock of my house and
prepared to burrow through the half-mile deep pile of garbage outside. Having to burrow
through "the pile", as it is known, had been of little concern to me until that
moment. After all, everyone had to burrow through the layer of garbage that blanketed the
entire planet.
I began to think
about the question of caring for the environment as I made my way to the store to pick up
a few cases of purified water. Though I had grown accustomed to drinking my water from
sani-sealed containers (the chemicals and sewage in the natural water supply being too
great for even heavy duty, high capacity home water filters), I found myself wondering
about what would have happened if anyone HAD heeded all those warnings about neglecting
the environment, all those years ago.
Maybe we could have
somehow cut down on the pollutants we were putting into the air. Maybe we could have
recycled and re-used more material, instead of adding to our piles of waste. Maybe we
would have tried harder to keep our natural water sources and other habitats free from
pollution.
I had gotten so
caught up in nostalgia that I almost didn’t notice that I hadn’t adjusted my
oxygen mask properly. Not wanting to breathe the lethal levels of toxins in the air, I
quickly re-adjusted my mask and resolved to think only of the present. After all, I
reasoned, it isn’t so bad, once you get used to it.