This Saturday I will set sail to the beautiful Caribbean islands. As I thought about the paradise that awaited me on behalf of Mother Nature, I began to wonder what I was doing in return. After some contemplation I looked at my trash and knew that I had a few house keeping items that had to be taken care of before I left. One of these items being the recycling of plastic that I have neglected since I got here. Whether or not one buys into the whole global warming theory, any reasonable person can agree that recycling and taking care of Mother Earth is the right thing to do. It might shock some of you that only 23% of Americans recycle anything. With the world population continuing to rise and the natural resources diminishing at a constant rate before our eyes and wallets we ought to rethink and recycle. It takes approximately 100 years for plastic to decompose in a landfill but about 1 minutes to recycle. For those of you who think you don't make a difference by recycling, take a lesson from the young man and the starfish. It goes something like this:There was once a wise old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. One day as he walked along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man, and the young man wasn’t dancing, but instead was reaching down to the shore, picking up starfish, and very gently throwing them into the ocean. “Good morning! What are you doing?” asked the wise man. The young man paused, looked up, and replied, “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The sun is rising, and the tide is out. And if I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.” “But, young man, don’t you realize that there are miles of beach and thousands of starfish all along it? You can’t possibly make a difference!” The young man, listening politely, bent down and picked up another starfish, throwing it into the sea past the breaking waves. Turning to the old man, he modestly replied, "It made a difference for that one!"
No comments:
Post a Comment