Wherefore Art Thou, Pollution?

With all this talk recently about carbon emissions and global warming, I often wonder whatever happened to good ol' pollution. It seems like "global warming" (or "climate change") is starting to find a home right up there with abortion and gay marriage, as far as hot-button issues go. People like Sheryl Crow step forward in support of reducing Global Warming, and they get criticized by others for their "oddball" ideas. Al Gore gets vilified by people on both sides of the issue for either being too sensational or for not being sensational enough. Point is, talking about the environment these days is a sure way to stir the pot, get some debate going, and, if you've got your fingers in the right pies, make some money.

So what ever happened to plain old pollution? When I was younger, I remember everyone talking about (and agreeing on) the need for recycling, and for spitting less nasty stuff into the air and water around us. No one said that creating trash was good, or that we would all benefit from having dirty, unbreathable air. It was a given that things needed to change, and, looking back, I suppose it was probably a pretty optimistic time. At least, it could have been. But it led to the debates we have today, about whether our actions on this planet are truly having an impact on this mythical global-warming thing, or if celebrities are jumping on the green bandwagon simply because it's the new thing. Why did this happen? When did the issue change?

Do we just love to debate things that much? Would we rather talk about how to solve problems than actually solve them? This is how I see it, how I have always seen it, and how I will continue to see it no matter what "evidence" is discovered or dispelled: The world can be a beautiful place, and I don't want to screw that up. Given the choice between looking at a brown sky every morning, or a crystal-clear blue sky, I know which choice I would make. I hope everyone else would make the same choice.

Imagine you're a dog living in a backyard. Never mind who's backyard it is, that's not the issue here. For all you know, it is your backyard and yours alone. It is your domain. And a wonderful domain it is. It's full of the greenest grass, speckled with purple flowers, and shaded by a hearty helping of leaves overhead. It's cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and you have no complaints.

And one of the best parts of this realm of yours is that you are free; you can wander where you want to, sleep where you want to, eat whatever you want to, and relieve yourself wherever you want to. This works out great, for a few days. But it doesn't take long before you start to realize that your freedom is starting to cost you. You've taken liberties and treated the entire yard as a toilet, and now the green grass is turning brown in places. Your food--mostly bugs and flowers--doesn't thrive so much anymore. It's becoming harder and harder to find clean places to lie down. It's not such a paradise anymore.

After a few weeks, almost the entire yard is brown and dead. The flowers have been replaced by weeds, and bugs have been replaced by flies and dung beetles. You can still eat them all, but the taste is pretty awful. You miss your old foods. Even worse, the health of your domain has become so bad that the trees that provided such great shade have begun to die, their leaves shrivel, and now the sun beats down on you with no respite.

I don't think I need to keep this analogy going any longer to make my point. Clearly, even though you can still live in the yard, it is not what it used to be. It's no longer a wonderful paradise. As such, your quality of life has decreased. And it's all because of your own irresponsibility. One major difference between this story and our real world--besides the obvious--is that the dog is limited in it's ability to undo the damage it does. As humans, we thankfully are in a position to stop destroying our environment--if we want to. If we can just stop talking about it ad nauseum.

Notice there was nothing in the analogy about all life dying in the yard, or about the yard becoming a barren wasteland of ice. The dog will survive. He'll just have to get used to a very different life; a life less-charmed; for lack of a better term, an ugly life.

That's what I want to avoid. I want beauty to surround me, and everyone else on the Earth. I want peoples in other countries to be able to look up at the sky and not see the effects of our carelessness.

Let's stop talking about global warming, and whether or not we are responsible. We may or may not be the cause, but I do believe we can be the cure. What is more important, to be right, or to be happy?