Food for Thought

For the last few years I have been suffering from early spring allergies, with this season seemingly worse. When chatting with some people I know who also suffer they all agreed that this season is worse for them as well. Then, a few days ago I saw a doctor being interviewed about allergies who confirmed that this year, sufferers are more affected than in the past and that it is bound to get worse.

            Great! was my reaction. The good doctor said that one of the main reasons was climate change which is affecting vegetation.  So, if humanity does not wake up to the fact that we are in trouble what will happen to the young people now facing many decades of allergies ahead of them? And all the other problems that will continue to creep up?

            I find it rather amazing that some people still believe that all the talk about climate change is simply not true. Some governments are even deciding to reverse on-going policies and actions that are helping our ecosystem get healthier. I simply don’t understand why these decisions makers feel that it will be beneficial for the world, including their own children and grandchildren. Don’t they see that the price we are already paying today will gradually get more and more exorbitant? Some experts are predicting that the floods and hurricanes we are seeing now are nothing compared to what we can expect in the future if we don’t shape up.  It’s more than time to speak up and let our elected officials know what we really want and really need.

            I have not loss all hope, however. I see how the younger generation is seriously involved in doing their part to improve our future.  All five of my grandchildren are avid proponents of the three Rs, much to my delight.  Two of them are vegetarians.  Even as teens, they decided that red meat was not only a poor food choice, but that it contributed greatly to global warming because of the methane cattle emit.  According to experts methane is twenty times more potent at trapping heat from the sun than carbon dioxide.  By unit, it is the most destructive of the greenhouse gases. To me that means that curbing our taste for red meat would help stop climate change.

I am also among those who deplore the fact that fields used to feed cows could be used to grow real food. A lot of “food” for thought here, don’t you think?