Think I'm going to have to take a hiatus from the news again.  The fires on the West Coast of the states, all those poor animals dying, habitat destroyed, massive bird deaths in New Mexico, our government wanting to spend $54 million on gas power, which means more fracking.  Wars and famine.  Greedy governments.  Power mad governments.  Corrupt governments working hand in glove with conglomerates and lobbyists and multinationals to keep the rich rich and the poor poor.  Climate change. Drought and disaster and this collision course with extinction.  

We have been given a perfect place to live.  It's paradise.  It is full of wonder and beauty and excitement and mystery.  All we need do is preserve it, substitute care for greed.  There's enough here for everyone, including the flora and fauna.  Heard a guy from the Lakes District in the UK.  He'd been following modern farming practices and watching his farm, inherited from his dad, go down the tubes.  He was in debt, the land was dying.   And the joy had gone.  He turned the farm around, increased the biomass, reverted to old farming practices with a few modern twists.  His farm is productive - not only for him but for the local wildlife.  He's out of debt.  He and his family are happy to farm again.  The joy has returned.  HIs farming friends and neighbours are taking note - but it's a huge step and the returns from increasing the biomass aren't immediate.  So they are rightfully cautious of making the leap.  

But we all need to make that leap.  We may not get a second chance.

A friend called me an activist yesterday.  Wish that were true.  She watched while I killed a snake run over on the road, mortally wounded but still alive.  I found a rock and smashed it's skull.  I'd rung Josh Frydenburg (Federal Treasurer) to voice my opinion of the proposed mis-spending of $54 million.  I rang the RSPCA about a starving horse.  I sign innumerable petitions, post things on FB, write occasionally to ministers, senators and the like.  But is it enough?  Not by a long shot. 

I look out this window at the wall of green, at my personal paradise.  Perhaps because I am surrounded by nature, it figures more prominently in my awareness than if I lived in suburbia or the city.  Also I have leisure.  Working people with kids in school, it would be a full time job just to get through the day intact without worrying about the ice melting in Greenland or the amount of plastic in our oceans.   

But we all need to worry about the ice melt and the plastic.

I am glad I'm old.