Silent Spring

Silent Spring was first published in 1962.  I was 12.  I remember the furor it caused with environmentalists sounding alarm bells and pretty much everyone else ignoring it although it did eventually work to have DDT banned.

In high school, my teachers talked about the fact petroleum was a limited resource.  There was even an effort to come up with an electric car, which got buried.

Then came the phosphates in the water.  I still remember sailing down the St. Lawrence River with the suds on the surface of the water.  I vowed then that I would find detergent without phosphates, and did when I got home.

Over the years various people would ring alarm bells about the environment but by and large, North American society (at least) pretty much ignored them.  Many people seemed to be stuck in acquiring more, more, more, never mind the cost to resources.

At the same time people were voicing concern about forests and plastics were thought to be the savior of the forests.  Instead of paper bags, cardboard take out containers, etc., plastic was the solution.

Until  now we are literally drowning in plastic.  Oceans are full of it, micro-plastics are getting into everything including our bodies.  People are urged to not use plastic straws which is well and good, but how about all that plastic packaging that seems rampant?  I saw a product on line - I don't know if it was a joke - but there was a large plastic package with an egg shaped cavity for a raw egg without the shell.  Seriously?

I started 'digesting' compost in the early 1980s when Canadian Tire offered a small 'green cone'.  Our garbage reduced by nearly 1/3.  Later our city offered free composters which were larger and I got one of those.  It actually makes compost and Doug routinely uses the compost in the yard.

Eventually a group of people worked to set up recycling in the area and now there is a province wide recycling program.  I just wish I felt more confident that all that plastic really was getting recycled.

In 1992, Severn Collis-Suzuki addressed the Rio Earth Summit and made an empassioned plea for those in power to do something about climate change.  She was 12 years old at the time.  I was astonished at her bravery to stand up in front of all those men (because it was still mostly men) and argue for them to consider the future of the planet instead of the bottom line.

I wonder what she thinks of Greta Thunberg, Autumn Peltier, Saoi O'Connor and all the rest of the children who are speaking up, begging for their futures.  Still.  Again.