Does she need us or do we need her?

That, my dear readers - is the Big question. I am of course referring to good ol Mother Earth.

I know you know the answer - she doesn't need us at all. Who would have thought! But do any of us really ever consider just how much we need her?

It never dawned on me until recently that everything we do stays under this one roof - our atmosphere. I know that may sound naive that here I am at 40 something (a lady never divulges her age)! - that I hadn't given it the time of day and I suspect I am not alone.

I was googling one day about how to grow asparagus and stumbled across this link to this book called "The Story of Stuff" by Annie Leonard. I hastily looked in the local library and found it, devoured it in days and it really opened my eyes to how wasteful and needy I had become! Now most people don't get excited when a book shows up their bad points, but you see I am different. I never thought of myself as a needy person! I thought I was doing good - hey - I recycle. I am careful with water. I have those funny looking pigs tail light bulbs so how could I be needy and wasteful? Well, it turns out I was in a whole different way!.

While I am not obsessed with the latest fashion, do dads, gadgets and nor am a shopaholic (can't stand those big box shopping centres and detest those parking lots)  I am obsessed with plastic! You probably are too! its everywhere so how can you not be? Obsessed is probably a bit harsh - its kind of a forced obsession - I don't love it but I need it!. Anyway - Why is everything individually wrapped? Why is cereal in plastic then cardboard?? No, seriously - I want to know? What is plastic made from? Oil....

Here is a pic of a box of cereal we opened the other day. Its the biggest one (820g) - why is this bag half full and then put into a box twice its size? (excluding the slight bulge!)

Anyway, not to harp on about my weaknesses - after I had finished the book,  I stole (um ah) Annies' motto which is "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without" and at times this is quite difficult for ones, as myself, who have become used to just buying something new "because we can". Whatever happened to wearing last years fashion? fixing the watch, repairing a shoe, or buying second hand? My guess is nothing.

One other slap int he face I got from the book was that there is no 'away' - like "throw that away" - where does it go? It stays right here on Earth. Leaching and rotting! .... even if we incinerate the "stuff", the toxins get flumed back in the air we breathe, the ash or molten plastic leaches into our soil and waterways and begins a new (and sometimes) more toxic journey.

I only mention plastic and landfill because otherwise this would be the longest blog in history (oil will have its day soon!), but just mentioning 2 things starts to hit home that while we rape and pillage the Earth for all its worldly goods, what do we actually give back to her? She just happily sits there and takes in all of our waste and harm and what happens when it all runs out? what will be left with? big holes in the ground, no clean air and yukky fish!

So do we actually think about how much we need the Earth and how healthy we need it to be? I will let you answer that.... while I work out how to stop buying plastic. :)
have a good night
BW