Earth Day

Today is Earth Day, for whatever that’s worth. It would be nice if it was a day when everyone was inspired to do something to make the Earth a better place, or at least a cleaner one. But, it never happens. Sure, some people are good. Some people plant gardens, or trees. Some go vegetarian. Some drive electric cars. All those people are better than me. I just sit here and bitch on my keyboard, but I’m in favor of everybody doing whatever they can.
The thing is, it should be very easy for us to avoid environmental devastation, to ‘terraform’ the Earth in the way scientists are suggesting we terraform Mars (I just read today that one of the rovers processed 5 grams of oxygen out of whatever poison the Martian atmospher is made of, so we’re moving in that direction), that we restore our atmosphere and our bodies of water and our plant bearing soil to their pre-industrial, non-chemical, pristine natural states.
We have the technology. We have the materials. We have the manpower. It could be done. But, our civilization is such that we argue about it infinitely, and any actions suggested are opposed vehemently.
We need more trees, lots more trees. We need a lot more solar panels and wind turbines, all over the world. We need an efficient energy grid, so all of this power production gets distributed. We need high speed rail, and electric cars. All of these things exist.
One thing that tends to get overlooked – doesn’t figure prominently in the Green New Deal, for instance, although I think it’s critical, and a no-brainer, is recycling. No, I’m not bitching at those people who don’t bother separating their trash. I do, paper, plastic, milk cartons and glass, but I’m still not sure it gets dealt with as it should after it leaves my sight.
No, we should make it easier on everybody and just say, give us your garbage, all your garbage, and we will separate it into plastic, paper, metal, glass, rubber, cloth, organic, and as many other categories as present themselves, because by going through ALL the garbage, these become valuable resources. All the organic garbage from the worlds major cities is enough to reclaim the deserts, and restore all the regions where the topsoil has become untenable. Money could actually be made on this.
Anyway, that’s one idea. Hope everybody is having a lovely day, and enjoying what is left of the world as we know it.