Earth Day

I barely remember the first Earth Day. Who though about pollution or anything like that back then. We did after all have no control over what was being pumped out of smoke stacks and dumped in rivers. There were some naturalists like Rachael Carson who had tried to bring light to our situation. I think there was a turning point or at least a beginning when eagles started to disappear from DDT and a certain river in Cleveland caught fire. Cities like Pittsbugh had put in scrubbers in their smoke stacks but that only filtered out the visable materials leaving microscopic bits of airborne metal and of course the sulfur leading to acid rain.
We didn't think about the lead in our gas that was leaving behind a toxic mess or the garbage barge being dumped in the ocean off the coast of New York. There were no catalitic converters on cars slowing emissions. Nobody back then thought twice about dumping waste in any out of the way place. Out of sight out of mind was the mantra of the day. We buried radioactive equipment at Hanford. Created ponds of toxic soup at Love Canal and burned coal for heating and indusrty. All of this polluted our land, water, and air. Nothing like peeing where you get your drinking water. And as the population continues to grow the problems of polution will continue to get worse. That is until we realize that everyting comes back at us. Whatever you put into nature or simply put what ever goes around comes around. Mother nature is very forgiving but if you cross the line she will take you out behind the wood shed and beat you to death. It doesn't really take a lot to change things either. It only takes many people doing small things to make a giant difference. It's all a matter of balance.