I am sure you have heard about the fires today in the Amazon rainforest. If you are like me, your social media feeds are full of people who want someone to do something about it. They are crying angrily for someone to fix this! Make it stop! Won't someone do something?! Why won't those bad people in another country do what we say?!
Here is the issue there- the solution is entirely out of their hands if they expect people in another country to act to satisfy them. Why is the Amazon burning? So people in South America can farm. They are cutting down forests so gain arable land, just like the US did 150 years ago. So why do we begrudge them this? Why are we so arrogant that we expect the people of South America to do something we are unwilling to? Have you seen anyone calling for US farmers to turn their fields back into forests? I certainly haven't.
Every first world country has cut down forests to make way for agriculture, for homes, for industry. The UK was down to 5% of it's land as forests in the early 1900's and is still only at 12%. Look to China and Russia and India today to see those same sort of behaviors that the western world engaged in during the 1700's and 1800's.
If you are concerned about "the lungs of the planet" burning, then maybe do something about it. Plant a gorram tree. Plant 20 trees. Plant 100 trees. Take ownership! Or stop buying the products from South America that are driving the increase in farmland. You know, like coffee, quinoa and cocaine. Are you worried about the health of the planet? How about eat local foods, not foods that are grown in the Amazon and flown to your local market. Want to save the planet? Stop drinking Starbucks every day. Stop doing bumps on the weekends and actually take an active role in cutting back on pollution and deforestation.
Something else you can do? Stop supporting US policicans that deploy troops. The US military is one of the biggest polluters in the world. Maybe the biggest polluter in the world. US citizens have control over this, yet we keep electing politicians that support the troops, planes, tanks and bombs that not only create more carbon pollution than the vast majority of the countries in existence, but actually destroy large chunks of the Earth itself.
Are you concerned about the health of the planet? Good. But stop whining that someone else should fix it. Take an active role and do something about it. Or at the least, stop being part of the problem. Stop buying things farmed in the Amazon, stop supporting politicians that want to maintain US troops at constant war in other countries. Plant a tree. It's simple really. If you want to see change, be a leader and take action. If the fix you call for gives the power to someone else to enact change, you aren't going to be successful.
