By JB Lester
Finally, there is a crispness in the air as summer bids a protracted farewell. I saw a lone Monarch flutter by the Halloween decorations hanging from the front porch. A blue jay is squawking at one of our feral cats near the arbor vitae. Our neighbor’s maple tree is just beginning to turn yellow as the warmer weather has delayed the fall colors a bit. My morning walks now demand a long sleeve garment, but I still stick it out with shorts. My neighbor the beekeeper has grown a giant gourd again. I suppose he will enter it into a contest somewhere. When we walk past his house my grandson Cooper is amused by the giant vegetable. But he is more interested in the Osage Oranges (Hedgeapples) that have fallen from a tree across the way, knowing that I will pick one up so he can roll it down the street. Caution abounds as there are many sewers waiting to gobble up the misguided orbs.
As November arrives, it gives me pause to be thankful for what Mother Nature provides in her variety of seasons. Yes, the Summer was very hot this year as climate change rages on. Storms are bigger and stronger, wildfires more destructive and floods more devastating than ever. Ice caps are melting, and oceans are rising. But don’t blame Mother Nature. She only reacts to the conditions she is given. We have provided a more toxic environment by putting more carbon into the air and pollutants in the soil and water. We have warmed the oceans and dried out the forests. Someone once said, “Don’t poke a sleeping bear,” and yet we keep poking and Poking. For those of us in a four-season zone, Mother Nature offers us the changes we need to make our lives more enjoyable. But we should not take her for granted. Her anger has been painfully experienced by many this past year. If we keep messing with the elements she needs to provide us with the bounties of life, we are only going to continue to create more environmental calamities.
Moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy is the ultimate answer. It’s a hard transition, but one that we need for a better future for our kids and grandkids. We need to put more emphasis on innovation and less on profit. Continuing to strip our planet of its natural resources is a fool’s errand.
I encourage you to thank Mother Nature by easing her burdens. Do what you can to help combat climate change. Do your part by recycling, reusing, reducing and repurposing. Drive less, walk more. Our future depends on the work we do in the present.