A walk in the woods
Have you ever wondered about how it all happened? Why does a certain plant grow in the shade, while another must have a sunny location to reach its potential or just survive? What did the first plants look like and how different where they from what we see today?
For billions of years the earth was barren. It appears that life began in the oceans and gradually came onto the land. At first perhaps just a few cells stuck together in the crack of a rock. From there it probably took several million years for the land to turn green and be covered with plants. There was wetlands and then came our forests. Billions of years later, earth蘑菇视频 newest creature, man, is trying real hard to reverse the greening process.
Land areas the size of states are being deforested and covered with asphalt and concrete as humans expand their habitat. Things were going along well until we humans came along and began using the forests and resources under the forest floor. Even the forest floor and what蘑菇视频 underneath are the process of the greening of our earth. As our numbers increased, Mother Earth started to run into trouble and the future of our green planet is beginning to show signs of wear from overuse.
In addition to our forests, our waters and air are coming under stress. Our oceans and streams are filling with the pollutants of our lifestyles. In places we are running out of water. In other places we have too much water as our seas are rising as the ice disappears. Urbanization is decolonizing the surfaces that plants colonized millions of years ago.
We need growth to sustain our lifestyle and allow the underdeveloped nations to enjoy the benefits of an improved lifestyle 鈥� food, shelter and freedom from the burden of just survival. Do we just continue to deforest our land and fill our waters with the byproducts of our efforts to keep on going the way we have always done it? Or have we reached the point in mans history when we truly get serious about our planet, our home, our provider?
Both science and our creator want us to be good stewards of what has been brought forward from the time when life moved from the water to the land. We have the resources to do the right thing. If the virus of recent months has taught us anything it has perhaps shown us that we are capable of a realignment of the way things are done.
Walking in the woods this week, I was reminded of all the trees that make our life so beautiful and what it takes to grow a tree. First the seed that must begin the process. Then the most terrifying risk of the first root that must anchor itself and begin its search for water. The odds of success are small, but enough seeds make it and the process of the tree and continued greening goes forward. Just like that seed mankind must take the risk and begin the discussion about our planet, our climate and the future for our children. A lot is at risk. Next time you are in the woods give a bit of thought to how it all happened and where it is all going.