On the 9th day of 2013

My head spins and my heart sinks when I read the environmental news every morning. Today's headlines in the second week of 2013 include a new colour added to maps because the heatwave in Australia has gone off the charts, 2012 was the warmest year on record, 11 elephants shot in Kenya by poachers, the Alberta Tar sands is poisoning the water all around it. Just a sampling. We are screwed. The planet is screaming at us and we still aren't listening. It has it's head out the window crying for help, trying to prevent itself from choking on the smoke of a burning building. What do we tell the kids? That we were so selfish, so shortsighted, so greedy, so maladjusted, so evil, so anthropocentric that we just kept calm and carried on? Right now is not the time to be calm and carry on, business as usual. That passed a while ago. Do we tell the kids that we did nothing to stop the destruction by the corporations, did nothing to curb our own desires for objects that don't matter, did nothing to save species being wiped out every day so some guy in Beijing or Manhattan could get it up? To we tell them that we did nothing to stop the poisoning of our only lifeline, the planet that feeds us, that gives us the air and the water the only things that really sustain life, sustain us? When will we take responsibility? Which day of which week? Which day of which year will you get up out of your bed and say 'okay it starts today'? When will you say 'Today'? Today I'm going to make some change, do something, curb back on inane desire for stuff, take a cause onboard, teach my kids what's really important, be a better parent, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, daughter, son, be an example, a better example, help someone, stand up for the animals, stand apart from what has gone before so that what comes after is better for everyone and not just you? Which day is the day to stand up for a difference? When will be that day when we rise and really wake up? Let it be today. If there's anything we do today let it be this. On the 9th day of 2013, listen and do something.