![\"globe_west_540\"](\"https:\/\/birdonthewire.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/globe_west_540.jpg\" "\\"globe_west_540\\"")
<\/a>Never before in the history of the world has taking care of the earth been more important. Climate change is upon us, but we, the inhabitants of the earth, have ignored these changes. Are we hoping they\u2019ll go away, like a mother who ignores all the signs that her child is using drugs, hoping that it isn\u2019t true? Are the statistics just too frightening to face?<\/p>\nAnd, of course, climate change isn\u2019t the only environmental disaster we\u2019re dealing with here on earth. Rain forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate, endangered species are dying off due to lack of habitat and poisons in the air and water, polluted air is giving our children asthma, the world\u2019s coral reefs are dying, oceans are filled with plastic, etc., etc.<\/p>\n
The earth is our home. The earth is our mother, and she is sick. It is up to us to take care of her because, if we don\u2019t, then nothing else we do here on earth really matters. If we don\u2019t take care of her, she will still survive. It is us, humans and animals, who won\u2019t make it. We need to do this for ourselves! The earth can go on without us, but it won\u2019t be the same earth. Instead of the amazingly rich biodiversity we now experience, the only inhabitants left will be the ones that can exist in the extreme heat that we are now creating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is terrible,\u201d you say, \u201cbut what can I<\/em> do about it?\u00a0 I\u2019m just an ordinary person.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s what this blog series is about \u2013 what you<\/em> can do to take care of your ailing home, the earth.<\/p>\n United States astronaut Loren Acton, upon returning from space, had this to say about his trip:<\/p>\n \u201cLooking outward to the blackness of space, sprinkled with the glory of a universe of lights, I saw majesty \u2013 but no welcome. Below was a welcoming planet. There, contained in the thin,\u00a0 moving, incredibly\u00a0 fragile shell of the biosphere,is everything that is dear to you, all the human drama and comedy. That\u2019s where life is; that\u2019s where all the good stuff is.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Poet Gary Snyder wrote about his love for the earth in the poem \u201cFor All,\u201d explaining that \u201cTurtle Island\u201d is the name that early Native Americans gave to the earth. Here are the last lines of that poem:<\/p>\n I pledge allegiance to the soil<\/p>\n of Turtle Island<\/p>\n and to the beings who thereon dwell.<\/p>\n one ecosystem<\/p>\n in diversity<\/p>\n under the sun<\/p>\n With joyful interpenetration for all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is the only home we have. Let\u2019s take care of it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Never before in the history of the world has taking care of the earth been more important. Climate change is upon us, but we, the inhabitants of the earth, have ignored these changes. Are we hoping they\u2019ll go away, like a mother who ignores all the signs that her child is using drugs, hoping that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[15,18],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdonthewire.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdonthewire.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdonthewire.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdonthewire.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdonthewire.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/birdonthewire.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565,"href":"https:\/\/birdonthewire.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions\/565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdonthewire.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdonthewire.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdonthewire.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdonthewire.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}