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I’ve been reading Walt Whitman lately and it reminded me why I need to do this. I didn’t arbitrarily pick a cause because I needed something to do; I picked this cause because I realized how insurmountably important nature is to me. There are too many places that I remember as a child that have been changed from their natural beauty to urban sprawl. When I lived in Phoenix (the city planner’s guide of what not to do) I remember there were days when I felt like my chest would collapse because of all of the pollution in the valley. I remember when I moved back to Oklahoma what it felt like to breathe again. I remember climbing to the top of the Superstition Mountains, one of the most breathtaking views in Arizona, and looking out to see the brand new copper mine, almost the size of a mountain itself. I remember how my heart felt when I saw that. I remember reading about the cactus owl , and how the EPA had deemed it “not enough of a sub-species of owl to be protected” and allowed builders in Arizona to continue their sprawl into its habitat and that of the saguaro cactus, despite the fact that there are only a handful of cactus owls left. I remember why Christine Whitman is my sworn enemy. I remember when my grandmother died of cancer. I was there, living with her. I don’t ever want to watch someone I care about go through that again. I remember reading about the island of plastic twice the size of Texas floating in the Pacific. I remember trying to drive in L.A. and thinking “What is the point of this?” I remember shopping for groceries in Canada at the local grocery store. I remember coming back here and going to Wal-Mart. I remember eating a fresh organic orange. There aren’t a lot of things better than that. I know what tomatoes fresh off the vine taste like. I know what it looks like when a forest has been clear cut and replaced with a monoculture of trees. I know why that’s bad. I also know what it looks like when Weyerhauser has a stack of trees they have harvested so high that when you look up you can’t see the sun at midday. I know what the mountain looked like after that harvest also. And I remember what it looked like before. I don’t like the obesity epidemic. It’s so pointless and sad! Why aren’t we getting enough exercise? Why don’t we walk more? Why isn’t there more public transportation? Why don’t we eat better? Why is it cheaper to buy soda pop and potato chips than organic juice and berries? Sanity depends on the ability to get away from the technology and just walk in the woods or listen to the water run by in the river. I chose this cause because it can’t go on. People have been effectively blinded to the consequences of commerce in the USA. I fear it’s spreading to other countries. There are other ways of living comfortably, and still creating a world future generations can also live in. We can have a healthy economy and not crush the social justice of the rest of the world. I chose this cause because I don’t give up. I’m not a quitter. I won’t back down just because the odds are against me. And because I think this issue is the single most important issue facing the world today. Without a healthy planet, nothing else matters. Because without air to breathe, water to drink or food to eat, there will be no people to govern. If we can’t find out what’s killing the honey bees, what’s causing more and more children to be born with autism, why Americans keep getting fatter, why the whales and frogs are disappearing, how can we stop the deforestation of the Amazon, why there is NO SUCH THING AS CLEAN COAL , why nuclear is a bad idea, why the sun is the best option, and why not every American should drive a car, then by the time we pay attention to what’s happening it will be too late. It may be a David and Goliath battle, but remember how that story ended.

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What is the Point?