There was a radio show that I listened to once.
I can’t remember the name of the show or the host, or even the station; but I can clearly remember the topic.
The speaker was setting the stage for a pep talk on how to live life in a carefree way. He spoke about releasing old baggage and removing toxicity from inner relationships.
And he used an anecdote to really drive things home: “there was a man I knew from high school that would eat all of the right foods, he would exercise, he was great at his job and had such a clean bill of health that his doctor told him he wouldn’t have to worry until he was 80,” he said. “But he was struck by a vehicle while jaywalking. There is no day that is promised for any of us, so indulge in the good things. Eat the cake, skip a day of work to spend with family, nothing is promised to us in this life.”
This story, I found, is told in many ways with a different character and scene, but the sentiment remains the same — enjoy yourself today because tomorrow is not promised.
But this is not a mantra that governments should live by.
Governmental bodies have the strongest power to ensure that this earth is here tomorrow and they can each contribute to its early demise, which we are coming to now.
We already know what’s happened in the amazon. Just last year, record fires in the Amazon sparked international outrage and capped a decade that saw the rainforest lose an area the size of over eight million soccer fields to deforestation.
A new study warned that as the climate becomes hotter and drier, future fires could be far more damaging. The same study projects that the amount of forest burned could double by 2050 and consume 16 percent of the rainforest — an area nearly the size of the entire state of Michigan, according to a professor at the University of California-Irvine and a lead author of the study.
Three volcanoes erupted in three days in three different counties as well. The eruptions were reported from three different countries, namely Mexico, Japan, and the Philippines, during the first few week of the year 2020.
Meanwhile the fires in Australia have been burning for months. The fires have consumed nearly 18 million acres of land, caused thousands to evacuate and killing millions of animals.
And the blaze is showing minimal signs of slowing down. The Australian state of New South Wales, where both Sydney and Canberra are located, declared a state of emergency this week, as worsening weather conditions could lead to even greater fire danger.
Each and every one of these fires hastens global warning.
And now, in our own community, the Grand River has overflowed with natural drainage water because all of the water that would have and should have been snow has gathered as a flood.
It doesn’t help that we have a government that thinks in the present in terms of resources with the mentality to enjoy it “today, because tomorrow is not promised” when it comes to money. We have an entire network of governments across the world that make decisions as though we have some where else to go should this earth be ruined beyond repair.
How hellish.
