Nothing New Under The Sun

Pam and I have been engaged in a major cleansing of junk from our house over the past few weeks. Along with hundreds of things that took us all of two seconds to throw into the dump pile, there were other things that brought the entire effort to a standstill. Pam would come across some adorable piece of artwork from one of the kids, I would stumble across a stack of short stories and even poetry that I wrote 40 years ago. Suddenly we would be transported to another time and place, sitting cross legged on the floor lost in our memories.

Yesterday Pam found a journal entry that she had written 30 years ago on Earth Day, 1990.

First of all, Pam isn’t the journal keeper in the family, so this was a rare find. What was striking about her words were how familiar they still are 30 years later. Three decades ago, an entire generation, we were being told of pending environmental disaster, that had to be addressed within ten years or it would be too late. Doomsayers have always been with us and they have always been good at grabbing headlines and selling papers. But, I also notice positives from this journal entry. Pam said we were going to “look in to recycling” and we did. We have been recycling ever since. The fact is that we have become more aware of our responsibilities to the environment than we were in 1990...a very good thing.

I have always had my fair share of doubts about the dangers posed by climate change and global warming. I do think that the most extreme scaremongers out there have a whiff of the charlatan about them. I also think that many, but certainly not all, of the loudest voices on the environmental left are far more interested in the accumulation and consolidation of centralized political power than they are saving the planet, but that’s just me. On the other hand, I do believe that climate change is a very clear and present danger. To the extent that we can actually change the outcome favorably by changing human behavior we should make the attempt. Even if the threat is overhyped and overstated, wouldn’t it be awesome if because of the threat, we were able to find an alternative, cleaner form of energy than fossil fuel? The reason I have never bought in to anything that comes out of the doom and gloom crowd is the confidence I have always had in the creative, entrepreneurial nature of America. I have absolutely no doubt that there are men and women in garages from Buffalo to Tulsa to Albuquerque working on the next big thing right now. We have never heard of them. The advances they are perfecting are unknown to us, but one of them is destined to change the world. It has always been so throughout human history, never so much so than in these United States.

Looking at Pam’s list of changes we were planning on making on Earth day 1990, the results are mixed. We did start recycling, in fact it seems we recycle everything now. We did cut back on buying so many disposable things like plastic plates, cups and razors. Still use baggies though. The cars we drive now get much better mileage than the ones we drove 30 years ago. I have little doubt that the next car we buy will be electric and probably self driving.

But, the ten year window we had to save the planet came and went and the planet is still with us and today’s scientists still claim it’s not too late, so I suppose that’s good news.

Still, it’s a humbling thing to read something that the thirty year old version of yourself wrote all these years later and discover that not much has changed. The Old Prophet told us all those years ago...There is nothing new under the sun.