living at the edge of a new leaf.

1. What, in your mind, is the most pressing challenge facing the global environment? Why?


"apathy" \a-pə-thē\ noun
1. absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement.
2. lack of interest in or concern for things that others find moving or exciting

In my mind, the greatest threat to the global environment is the growing apathy of its' inhabitants. We seem to have lost our love and passion for the naturalistic elements that make life possible. People have grown so disconnected with the sources of their everyday commodities, that rarely is a second thought given to how finite they actually are. Meat comes from the supermarket, fuel from the gas station, clothing from the department store. As the link between source and expenditure expands, so decreases our interest in the prior.

I don't have to butcher my chicken for dinner anymore, so yes - my life is better. But better is relative. I can Blog for class with out the smell of chicken feathers on my fingers, but I compromise my knowledge of where that chicken was raised, what it ate, and just how long it sat in deep freeze before reaching my plate.

No longer do we live in an society that witnesses the beauty of nature on a daily basis.Working part time at a running store, I encounter many customers who have never actually run outside. Others grumble and complain over the county's parks and rec departments failure to pave or concrete over their favorite bike path. Little do they know, it's these man made surfaces that cause the very pain they need the high-end cushioning shoes to begin with.

I have a friend who claims never to have seen the milky way nor the nebula of orion, as the light pollution from the neighboring city blazes so brightly no stars shine through. Another acquaintance blasts the heat in the winter and the air conditioning in the summer, I'm surprised she can even tell the seasons.

The global environment's greatest challenge is regaining mankinds' appreciation for her bountiful gifts and simple pleasures. In the words of Gandhi, "To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves."