Thoughts of Lost Innocence

man, I really hope my generation does manage to turn things around before it’s too late. of course, everyone currently living of all generations has a part to play!

I’m oddly squished inbetween Millenials and gen-z, and share both their cynicism and hope. it’s an uphill battle for sure, especially when politicians are almost all from decades-old well-established political families who are afraid of change, or else backed by the same.
I vote independent/green party a lot of the time, except when I need to vote against a major candidate. In Israel it matters since Parliament is proportional but in the USA it’s basically throwing my vote in the garbage :(
either way, I’ve been getting more politically involved, inspired by gen-z’s relentlessness. it doesn’t feel like it’s too late… quite yet…

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I remember going to downtown Cleveland (Ohio) in the 1960s as a child. There was a brown haze over the city skyline. And, of course, there was that thing with the Cuyahoga River catching fire. But, now, it is MUCH different. The river is relatively clean. People go rowing/paddleboarding on it even in winter. As a birder, it is a great place to see birds all year round because the birds have fish to catch now. The Lake Erie shore is much cleaner thanks to local groups. Our local park system, the Cleveland Metroparks, is supported by the citizens. They have taken over land along the lakeshore that used to be managed by the city and have cleaned it up significantly. As a birder, it is great to go to these places.

There are also local groups improving things: land conservancy organizations that buy land, clean it up and donate it to a local park system. Some of these organizations acquire vanishing areas like bogs. There are local creek cleanup organizations that monitor, cleanup and replant areas around creeks that flow through the suburbs that most people don’t even know exist. I know NE Ohio/Cleveland isn’t the biggest urban area around. But, local groups can and do make a difference.

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After 2 months of baboon activists campaigning … breaking news today.
https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/kataza-the-baboon-to-go-home-to-slangkop-after-city-of-cape-town-capitulates-720a0679-4a40-491f-8d0d-db9bea36ac30?fbclid=IwAR0UMSN5o3RwqVQMR3DLIk8p5B5F-YsCtFUrzDST14wntqKDZt63IL6zDm0

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I know how you feel, @astra_the_dragon. I, too, am on the borderline between Generation Y (Millennials) and Generation Z (Zoomers - I like this term a lot, but I don’t know how other people feel about it. It is even funnier when you think about the unrelatedly named Zoom software many people are using nowadays to connect with other fellow human beings during the COVID-19 Pandemic). I recently found out about the Green Party, and it has shifted my focus to be more environmentally conscious of what I do. Although, every party has its faults.

But I digress. I do feel we need to balance the urgency of needing to fix the climate with hope that it can be done, as many other people have already pointed out. I think Carl Sagan said it better than most:

“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

— Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

Copyright © 1994 by Carl Sagan, Copyright © 2006 by Democritus Properties, LLC.
All rights reserved including the rights of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

“A Pale Blue Dot | The Planetary Society.” The Planetary Society, 2020, https://www.planetary.org/worlds/pale-blue-dot. Accessed 7 November 2020.

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Thanks for the reminder. I bought this book a while back after reading her first book, Gathering Moss. Have moved it to the top of the pile to read next.

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