To the Editor,
There was a very provocative column in Tuesday's Amherst Daily by Jerry Randall (Reversal on our thinking needed).
If one looks to and accepts some of the current biological and ecological findings, we are all in deep trouble -- we being Nova Scotians, New Zealanders, frogs, polar bears, warblers - actually the whole planet and its inhabitants; we are all in this together (When will we learn this?).
As Mr. Randall intimates, the "canary in the mine" is singing for his life - actually, our lives as well; that is the whole point. But to what avail if we delude ourselves that we can solve problems by "off-shoring" them, or thinking that we can ignore them.
Years ago, the great humanitarian (and skilled organist) Dr. Albert Schweitzer said, "We have no right to avert our eyes and pretend we cannot see, the suffering of which we spare ourselves the sight." If we accept this as a worthy principle, it surely also extends to acknowledging, and acting on, the (some would say irreversible) damage being done to the planet, at home and abroad which - yes, like bad karma - has begun to come back on us.
Everything is somehow connected, and even if one still doubts the theory of global warming, the worst case scenarios - of habitat loss, species extinction, catastrophic crop failures, drought, and resultant human migration and political unrest- are enough (or should be) to make one realize that our current practices are unsustainable. We do need to get a grip on this, meaning it will take our collective and political will to make choices that reflect certain values; values that assume we care about the world we hand to future generations. But time is running out.
Sandy Graham, London, Ont.
