For Earth Day as an American, I have decided to celebrate, by thanking it. Thank you for all you have given me, including:
The Mesozoic jungles that have given me the gas for my car and the coal to fuel the electric generating plant that propels my air conditioner. Thanks to the ancient forests of Canada, today being pulverized so I can read my morning paper. Thanks to the people of Third World countries that grow my fruit that is flown in fresh so I can eat it for breakfast. Thanks to giant retailers that can buy globally so my clothing does not need to be made anywhere near my home. Thanks to China for their lax environmental codes so that my solar panels and other “green” goods can be produced in a place where the wastes from the making of these products does not tax my local ecosystem. Thanks to eons of fresh snowfall in the Alps so I can have a bottle of clean water shipped from Europe. Thanks to rainforests producing the oxygen I need to burn off the massive caloric intake I consume eating my fast food diet. Thanks to the oceans for consuming much of the fertilizer runoff from my lush green lawn. And thanks to the U.S. government that lets me do this to my planet, my Earth, my home.
Seriously. Let’s not forget the real heroes of Earth Day, the plants and animals that make our existence possible.
