Why are parks sacred to some,yet others view them as places to develop.
To me and many they are our connection to Mother Earth, our planet, the very thing that keeps us alive.
Trillions of dollars are spent on spiritual gods we do not see, yet we have faith they exist and will provide for us a better life or relief from our guilty sins, but how little is put back into what should be treated like a god — Mother Earth. We are obligated to protect and ensure our planet is healthy for present and future generations.
My lifetime of travels, especially Eastern Asia and a lifetime of casual research tell me our planet is in extreme peril yet no-one takes serious notice, but prefer to make excuses saying everything is fine, nothing to worry about, natural cycle — bull. I have seen the countless breathtaking toxic sunsets from industrialized cities, air so bad you would develop a cough within just a few days, watched the oceans — once bountiful — dwindle to near death replaced by floating debris. Yet, we go on every day like the world will heal itself.
Even here in North America our pollinators (which is required for reproduction in almost 90 per cent of flowering plants and three-quarters of crop species) have been reduced to a critical low. Our bird populations are half of what they were in the 1960s, yet so few really care in their busy day to day life. We are blindly destroying what we should protect most, our Mother Earth. Would you poison your own mother? Of course not, yet near all of us continue to pollute Mother Earth.
The industrial/commercial-minded people suffer little guilt to remove trees and nature, in our case parkland, without conscience. They lack the capacity to look beyond their daily boundaries. Nothing we do is without consequence. Even to drive our cars, motorized toys, heat our homes, etc. There is consequence even if it is trillionth of one per cent it becomes accumulative. So why then do we ignore the reality of our local and planets environment? Is it because we don’t want to be morally or financially accountable?
No one wants to give up their comfortable life, cars etc. including myself. It is much easier to pretend our planet will fix itself. Our planets ecosystem is fragile. We should respect Mother Earth and put back into the environment in any way possible which includes preserving all existing parks, greenspace and requesting to expand parks. They are essential environmentally far more than most realize. We all owe our lives to this planet, so how can we pay back this debt to which provides life?
Most will argue our saving/expanding our parks will do little for the planet, but is preserving/adding parkland, nature also not accumulative?
We must demand an end to leasing out any parkland now and for future generations.
If you care for the environment, please attend our protest against commercially developing Penticton’s parklands and for a transparent, responsible and accountable government on Tuesday, Sept. 6 at Gyro Park 4:45 p.m.
Clifford Martin
Penticton
