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Posts Tagged ‘national parks’

We must all be protecting the environment.   It is man who threatens the existence of the planet and it is man who must repair the damage he created.

There is an iconic scene from the Emmy Award winning television drama Mad Men. Set in the early 1960s, advertising executive Don Draper and his family are enjoying a family picnic in a city park.

How things have changed since then!  When the Drapers are ready to leave the park, Betty picks up the red and white tablecloth, and fans all the paper plates, plastic forks and spoons and napkins all over the grass and leaves them there as the family gets up and walks to the parked car.

Today towns don’t even bother posting signs about fines for pollution anymore.  Generations of Americans have become so accustomed to removing their trash that it is second nature.

Some National Parks are going one step further.  Rather than place metal trash bins throughout the park, patrons are advised at the entrance that all trash must be removed from the park completely.

In some parks the problem is animals foraging through the trash and getting too close to people, however protecting the environment is the driving force for this emerging protocol in parks.

These are simple steps we can implement on our own.  The rest is up to the nations of the world.  It is well established that the polar ice caps are melting and breaking away.  In 2008 a block of glacial ice the size of the state of Texas broke off, alarming scientists around the globe.

The polar bear is the symbol of global warming.  Video of the bears clinging to ever-diminishing pieces of ice add a personal element to the problem.  School children everywhere are learning about the plight of the polar bears and learning about ways to save the planet in schools.

One of the major problems in recent years has been the increasing use of bottled water instead of tap.  What began as a convenient way to bring water to people on the go; in cars, on bikes, on walks, has become a total replacement of tap water in the home with bottled water.

First of all, bottled water is simply tap water from another source, so no one in America is doing themselves any favor by turning their nose up at the municipal water supply for bottled water that claims to come from springs.  It quite likely comes from a municipal water source elsewhere.

Worse yet, the plastic bottles are doing harm to the environment by clogging up the landfills.  It takes more than 100 years to break down a plastic water bottle.  Nature will break down the person who drank it in much less time!

For portability, consider filling an old-fashioned thermos with water for your car ride, and bike shops have hard plastic water bottles that can be washed and used again and again, and these fit right in special bottle holders on bicycle frames.

Composting is another way to save the planet.  Nature’s organisms are very effective processors of garbage.  If your yard is large enough, set aside a distant corner for the disposal of food scraps.  Turn the pile frequently to allow gases to escape and add other organic matter like leaves and wood ash from your fireplace.

In three year’s time you’ll be rewarded with rich, dark material better than anything you can buy at the garden store.  You can spread this dark composted matter around your garden and continue the circle of life: from kitchen scraps to garden fertilizer, a most satisfying means of protecting the environment.

Businesses can do a great deal to cut down on travel and use a lot less gas. If you’re planning on attending a conference or seminar that’s a fair few miles away, check if any important presentations will be using webcasting to broadcast online. Webcasting is a form of streaming video that allows you to watch an event live from your computer, so if they are, you’ll be able to see the whole thing without taking a single step out of the office, saving both the environment and a whole lot of travel money.

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Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was on a vacation hunting and camping trip in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State when he got the urgent news that President McKinley had been shot, was in grave danger of dieing and that he must return at once.

Teddy Roosevelt’s love of the outdoors and the natural beauty of this country is well known. His many books and writing reflect it so. TR also became one of our staunchest environmentalists in a day when there was still a lot of wide open spaces to protect.

He told the U.S. Congress in 1907:
“The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life.” With this simple statement TR went on record as being one of this country’s strongest advocates and protectors of our natural wild and beautiful places, as well as saving the environment for all.

From 1901 to 1909 President Roosevelt caused the creation of 51 wildlife refugees, and Congress passed his Antiquities Act which led to the creation of many national monuments. It was during TR’s administration that the National Park Service came into being.

In 1902 he caused to be established the first National Park at Crater Lake, Oregon and then went on to create four more; the Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, Sully’s Hill National Park in North Dakota, the Platt National Park in Oklahoma and the Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.

Teddy Roosevelt was a great friend and admirer of John Muir, that we have Blogged about previously, and it was during this era that the Sierra Club started to flourish. Muir was famous for the statement that “The forests are the lungs of our land.”

We can all be thankful that such a visionary was in a position of power and was able to get his message out to the general public.

Let’s not let him down. We should all do our part to help the environment in what is now called the Green Movement.

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