The Portal to Boomeranger World: Slow Green Movement

OK, you say, now I'm supposed to feel guilty about polar bears AND gorillas?

What has that to do with me? Nothing directly...if you are in the developed West, you didn't pull the trigger that brutally murdered--some execution style--10 of a family of 12 Mountain Gorillas in Virunga National Park in Central Africa last summer. Moms and dads, teens and kids--leaving the babies to starve to death. A warning to all to back off from investigating illegalities in the park. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/07/virunga/jenkins-text.

You are not part of the $30, 000,000 illegal trade in charcoal that is decimating this most stunning national park--a park that for its environmental and ecological diversity and sheer beauty many scientists and environmentalists call the jewel of THE PLANET.

You are not one of the many 1,000s of families that have been displaced due to the wars in Rwanda. Due to the decades-old (several century-old) conflicts between The Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, all that border the park. You are not a Tutsi or a Hutu. You are not desperate for the life-giving charcoal that will heat the water to cook your mealie meal to feed your hungry kids.

Nor are you purposely running your car on oil, wearing oil based clothing, heating, cooling with oil, drinking water out of oil-based bottles, walking on oil-based carpeting, sitting on oil-based furniture, bringing home food packaged in oil-based wrappings and bags, right? That's just all there is to choose from, right?

You are not directly responsible for the carbon emissions that are melting the ice floes at the North Pole and shrinking the ice pack that normally sits about 50 miles off the northern coast of Canada to more than 200 miles? SO...you are not responsible for the loss of PLANKTON that is locked up in the ice and feeds all the subspecies that feed the Polar bears and larger polar creatures, are you?

Humans have an insatiable NEED for energy--whether it is charcoal the production of which is descimating the old growth hardwood trees in Virunga Park: No trees=no habitat. No habitat=no gorillas.Or whether it is oil to power our "modern" comfortable life.

And yes, I do believe we are all responsible--not in a guilty way--guilt paralyzes and causes us to turn away. But in a way that is a Global Wide Call to Action and on our own selfish behalf. We are selfish creatures--well, really we have a basic driving inner force to LIVE. Each of us has this need, this drive--all creatures do. But now we must realize that unless we are selfish together and take selfish action together for our own benefit, we will all go the way of the dodo. And our beautiful Blue Marble will be a smoking empty desert hulk.

DO the Change you want to BE. SOmeone out there invent a little portable and cheap solar cooker that can be GIVEN to all the displaced families around Virunga Park. And SURELY we are not that lazy, worthless or stupid to not be able to invent cheap and easy wind turbines and solar or human powered and CHEAP means to power our needs.

I recently received a sampler from the Sundance Channel about a new environmental program called "big ideas for a Small Planet." As I view that sampler, I' ll share with you.

So think about what you can do today--one action taken in millions can really change things.

There are 78,000,000 of us Boomers. That is a huge, HUGE, HUGE number. Imagine if each of us did at least one action a day to reduce our individual carbon footprints. Imagine!

Some years ago, I realized that I was not being active in environmental organizations because I felt OVERWHELMED by the magnitude of the problems.

I recall a Time Magazine cover that showed the rain forests blazing in the Brazilian Amazon to clear land for cattle ranching to grow cheap beef for American fast food burgers.

I felt sick and I turned the cover over, because it was so so so very upsetting and I felt so powerless.

I was not and am not a consumer of fast food (unless it is a real emergency). So my boycotting Burger King or Big Macs was not going to help. I wasn't going to fly to Brazil and become a fire fighter or perch in a tree protecting it from being cut. But I remember that cover. It was branded on my brain.

Some years ago I started working on a book called, "Garden for Life." It was inspired by volunteering in my daughter's kindergarten class with a gardening project, making planting pots out of newspaper and planting lettuce and cuke seeds.

When we dug a little plot outside in the school grounds and the kids planted their seedlings pots and all--newspaper just rots of course and adds humus to the soil--one innocent child asked, why we were doing this, because food comes from the supermarket. "What's a garden for?" was the exact question. I was staggered and began to explain again how seeds sprout etc. But the most distressing realization was how disconnected a WHOLE generation and more of children are from the earth and its riches. Since the 1960's more and more people live in suburbs. I was amazed two years ago to learn as I was researching "Garden for Life" that over 66% of Americans now live in suburbs and that number is growing!

Those burbs are mostly not like my town which is old and filled with lots of mature trees, dotted with little shopping areas you can walk to (but I mostly don't, I confess! I'll TRY, I promise. I need to for my health!), but they are new developments that have hungry lawns and few trees. They require a car to get to shopping, because they are what are called pod and corridor developments. Imagine a line with little circles off to the sides. The line is the corridor highway/road where stores are, and the circles are "pods" of housing. You must drive to get anywhere.

So what can you do? Bundle your errands to save driving. (I do bundle.) Walk when possible. I have seen people drive from one end of a shopping strip to the other--maybe only a foot ball field or so to go to different stores. Forgo plastic bags to put a few apples or snow peas in. Even better plant apple trees and grow peas. I've got both in my yard.

I'd love to hear from you with your suggestions. I am working on another book, "365 Really Easy Ways to a Greener Life in Just One Year." I'd love to include your ideas in my book.

I look local now and co-founded a Backyard Habitat project of the National Wildlife Federation. We have been working to green our community one house and store at a time. We are about 1/2 way through.

Go see the NWF's program and take action in your community. (www.nationalwildlifefederation.com). Forgo an unnecessary mother's day gift and go to www.memory-of.com and buy a virtual candle of which $1.00 will go for breast cancer research funded by the Susan G. Komen Foundation, www.komen.org. Clearly environmental pollution is one factor in the rise of these cancers. Or plant a native flower or bush for Mother's Day.

Remember Mother's Day was not originally a day to honor mothers and certainly NOT to buy them stuff, it was an effort of mothers to bring about the end of WWI and create peace. Take daily small actions in your life.