It has been years since we heard of terrible calamities to
the Earth and its occupants, and now is as good a time as any to revisit those
dire warnings.
In the past few decades, we have heard Chicken Little’s cry
about the falling sky of our planet.
Global warming would have devastating effects on the Earth, causing it
to eventually spontaneously combust. The
definitive culprit was aerosol deodorant.
Once banned, all would be good but, it wasn’t.
We, as a people, needed to be responsible and demonstrate
our verve by recycling bottles, cans, and newspapers. If we only recycled, it would be a positive
step to saving the planet.
Unfortunately, picking up all that separated trash demanded
the use of a second garbage truck which resulted in twice the pollution.
Pretending that the paper bags issued to grocery shoppers
needed to quickly cease because cutting all those pulp-wood pines endangered
the Earth even more. Plastic bags were the exchange because we could now save
trees. But, plastic bags don’t decay in
landfills so, they needed to be outlawed, too.
Cloth bags seemed to be the reasonable alternative to both
paper and plastic sacks. Once again,
that reasoning would be flawed as so many germs remain in the used bags, they
are now causing severe illnesses. All
this would lead to “global warming;” those words were changed to “climate
change” when we had record snowfalls, debunking any kind of warming. Simply put, we Southerners call this “winter
and summer.”
Then, there was the Three Mile Island (TMI) incident. TMI is a nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania
Next we visit that summer bane, mosquitoes. The Shore is chock full of skeeters, and big
ones, at that. Rivaling sparrows, in
size, they are aggressive bring all sorts of diseases including West Nile
Virus. Each summer the media floods the
airwaves with warnings about the dangers of being bitten by these critters and
how to avoid them by emptying plant saucers, changing bird baths, and ridding
ones property of old tires – all of which allow water to accumulate where these
pests breed.
Each year we buy can upon can of bug spray but still get a
bite here and there and, we remain alive.
Other hype that seems endless concerns snowstorms,
nor’easters, hurricanes, and droughts.
We are able to cope with these natural disasters not without
inconvenience and discomfort. We pool
our resources and help one another when the time calls for assistance; we
endure. By the way, the Earth is till
spinning.
We were deluged with bad news about the economy in
2009. The government hastily passed a
$1,000,000,000,000 bailout that was needed to help keep people employed. It didn’t and we are further indebt than
before.
Of interest to fisherman and boaters, hydrilla, an invasive
underwater plant species was found to have crept into fresh water lakes and
rivers across the eastern United
States
In addition, we needed “free universal healthcare.” It is not free nor universal. Still, the Chicken Little’s garner all the
press.
Instead of listening to all this bunk, we should focus on
getting all the facts and keeping our Congressman and Senators honest.
