Doing it Right - and Wrong

On the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, some people are trying very hard to help the natural resources recover, because, after all, only the Green are going to survive. This is why Beaver Creek,

Beaver Creek Falls, Olympic Peninsula, WA

on highway 113, looks like it does in the photo on the right. 

Some people live in the bad old days.

The step trail down to the pool is worn and supported by tree-roots, forming a natural staircase. This is how humans used to live with their support system on this continent. 

Lewis and Clark didn't discover anything - they were led along smooth, footworn trails, such as are seen in national parks, where the forest and humans have had a chance to live together again, as we have for milleania. 

Blind to what was around them, the "explorers" didn't realize that First Nations and animals - all people of this continent - had led the way and made homes before them. This blindness continued as industrial forestry - and its serfs - bumbled into the world with no clue how anything actually worked.

Which is why we get this Budweiser® moment. Suck down the commercial product, and numbly drop the shell onto the earth. I don't suppose Budweiser® promotes such behavior, but its commercials don't even seem to recognize its customers are acting like this. Does the company care? Probably not. Then again, they're not going to survive - ONLY the Green will survive, and this ain't it.

Our ancestors were sloppy feeders; we grabbed fruit, munched a mouthful, and dropped what we didn't want wherever we walked. Our meal leavings and dung simply spread seeds and fertilized, adding back what we'd taken. We harmed nothing.

But - some people don't seem to get that we're not apes in trees any more. If we suck and drop, the thing we leave doesn't add to anything. Perhaps this aluminum can wouldn't, by itself, do a lot of harm. But it's not the only thing being thrown away, and it adds up. 

We're the Thinking Ape - how about we start thinking? And stop lying to ourselves? If this was your kid, your Family Values stink. If you did this in front of your kids - what kind of parent ARE you?