Once again, it's Earth Day. Here at UTM, Project Recycle has hosted an aluminum-recycling competition through the month of April; the winning dorm will get coupons good for about a half-dozen local businesses (we went for more, but those were the only ones who chose to participate).

You know, though, it's a shame we have to bribe people to get them to recycle. You have to offer people money or something to get them to do the right thing. It gets done, true, but it shouldn't have to be that way.

I'm reminded of what George Carlin once said about the whole environmental movement (and I can applaud this, because I'm part of it) -- when we tell people it's about saving the planet, that's bullshit. What would really get people involved is tell it like it is -- it's about saving our own asses.

Mother Earth got along just fine for millions of years before we came along, and she'd do just as well -- better, actually -- if we were to all become fertilizer and stop dumping shit in the rivers and streams.

"Save your ass -- recycle." That would be a very accurate slogan.

So many people take our planet for granted. Or, even worse, they heckle and make light of people who do give a damn about it.

Remember James Watts? He was Secretary of the Interior for Ronald Reagan. He's the guy who came up with the bright idea to allow strip-mining on Federal lands. There was this speech he made, in a pretty backwater fundamentalist area of the country, where when asked about the ecological damage of this strip mining, he basically said, "Aw, shucks, that ain't none of our concern. We all know The Rapture will be coming by the turn of the century, and anyone who's left to deal with the consequences after all of us are gone -- well, they're sinners, so they deserve whatever they get."

Now, the constitutionality of this religion-based policy aside, that's just plain evil, playing it off that way. But it was for money (so, in typical Republican fashion, morality was cast aside).

Thing is, it's like the old Sioux proverb says, you can't eat that money.

A lot of our religious institutions do a disservice to the planet, and to humanity, by denying that we're a part of nature. They claim we're a special case, that we're above everything. This is not our real life, or so they say; this is but a prelude to something higher.

And, when you look at it that way, I guess you do lose a feeling of attachment, of responsibility.

But.

Jesus has been coming for two thousand years. Now he might really be gearing up for some grand reappearance, but what if it's not for another two thousand years? Then we'll have a lot of explaining to do to our kids and grandkids and to the person who left us to take care of this planet when it all wraps up at the end.

The oldest religion was the religion of nature. And none have topped it in wisdom or eloquence. Eat, sleep, protect the tribe, find joy where you can; don't do anything that could lead you to getting hurt, unless it's absolutely necessary for the good of the pack that you do so. Raise the young, teach them what they know, and when it's time to die, do so without any fuss, and let the earth reabsorb your body. That was the approach to life taken by aboriginal peoples the life over, and I don't for a second think their "pagan" ideas are less advanced than ours... in fact, I think our society could learn a lot from them.

I don't believe we're here to use this planet in any way we see fit. I believe we're here to coexist with it as harmoniously as possible. To me, the religions that admit that -- be they Native American, Hindu or whatever -- are a lot wiser and more realistic in at least their world view, if not all the fine details, than Christianity and Judaism and all these other "your body's a shell" religions that deny our animal nature.

And we are animals, no matter how much more we might have to our nature. Part of us is under the spell of that reptile brain. And when we die, we're meant to replenish the earth, not sit wax-like in some metal box.

Another aspect of the issue is that of what we leave behind us for our children. Humans are one of a very few species of animal that will hurt and maim and kill its young.

Think of it this way. Suppose your neighbors were a normal couple, nice folks, pleasant and charming in conversation, upstanding people except for one thing. Pardon the image, but suppose every morning your neighbors urinated in their children's cereal bowls and then made them eat it.

You wouldn't think too highly of your neighbors in that situation, would you? No, you'd call DHS or some equivalent agency, maybe the police, and report your neighbors for child abuse.

Pollution is a form of child abuse -- we're poisoning the world they will one day inherit from us. And just like beating or molesting a child, it's a form of abuse that in some cases is perpetuated from generation to generation. Some break the cycle; some fall into it.

There might be a world after this (I don't believe so, but I've been wrong before). But does that mean we should try any less to make this one good, to keep it the way we found it? To me the highest compliment we can pay to this planet and whatever force might have set us upon it is to respect this planet that keeps us alive. To me there's a lot more holiness in picking up a can from the side of the road than there is in sitting on a church pew and singing about how we're all going to Heaven.

God Is Dead -- Now What?