This is an essay I did for RE this morning. Thought you might like to read it...
If you could revisit the earth in 200 years time, what would you want to find?
What can you do in your life to help make this vision a reality?
What would I want to find? It's a difficult question. And it produces some surprising answers. I would want to find birdsong to show that birds have survived and humans have cared for them. I would want to find animals, so that we haven't killed them off. I want to see all those creatures facing extinction by humans saved, and living where they should be living. I want to see wildernesses, large areas, worldwide, that humans haven't touched and aren't going to touch. I want to see trees in great, big forests, improving the planet. I want to find gardens, so that all of us have a small ecosystem outside our house, not a paved wasteland. I want to find a decent standard of healthcare, globally. I want to find an eradication of poverty if such a move is possible. I want to find people and animals co-existing. I want to find governments that care for their people. I want to find new scientific advances. I want to find an end to global warming. I want to find a thriving human race. I want to find thriving plant life. I want to find thriving wildlife. I want to find everyone living the life they want to lead, not the life society thrusts on them. I want to find culture, not globalisation. I want to find peace. I want to find sense. I want to find a better world.
So what can I do? I can put out bird feeders and support the RSPB further to save birds. I can donate to the RSPCA to save our British pets. I can donate to the World Wildlife Foundation and save wildlife worldwide. I can donate money to other charities that are working to preserve wildernesses. I can donate to the Woodland trust and plant my own trees. I can make sure that I always have gardens on every property I own and never concrete jungles. I can donate to the many healthcare charities to improve global living standards. I can donate to Third World charities to eradicate poverty. I can help charities raise awareness of the needs of wildlife. I can support all the political charities whose aims I believe in to encourage democracy. I can support scientific research. I can cut down on my own carbon emissions to do my bit to combating global warming. But will I really do this? I hope I will but there is only so much money one can spare to donate to charity. There is only so much time I can donate to making gardens, planting trees and volunteer work. But I should make the effort. I want to make the effort. And, hopefully, I shall make the effort.
