Our Precious Resources

Do we, as humans, really respect and conserve our precious resources?  I realize that this is an open ended question, as precious resources can relate to human capital, our land and all that swims, crawls or walks.  In fact, we, ourselves, could be included in the list of precious resources, because if we do not treat the vessels we live in well, we have the potential to pollute our bodies and contaminate ourselves.  Ewww, that does not sound good, yet, we all know someone that does this.  We can blame the environment that surrounds as the cause, but in the end it is still our choice.   Still, do WE really respect and conserve our precious resources?

The reason why this seemingly peculiar thought began to rattle around in my brain was due to a recent conversation that I had with one of my bus buddies (story for another time) regarding animals.  He and his wife like to hike and enjoy the outdoors.  Every year he gets excited about the annual Eagle fest that occurs locally, at the beginning of February, and they have gone on vacations that included traveling to locations where they can enjoy the local wildlife.  I had mentioned that a number of years ago, we had taken a family trip to Australia and had visited various zoos / wildlife preserves to enjoy their native wildlife in their natural habitats.  The comment that he made was, “It is always great to see other countries that respect their wildlife.”  The conversation turned to the importance of visiting places like the Galapagos Islands and rain forests before we find a way to potentially destroy these natural resources.

Just like our bodies, we have, as far as we know, only 1 planet earth.  It is great to fantasize about travelling to other planets and the wondrous things that await us.  I firmly believe that we need to dream big and visualize these types of things to make reality.  But, what condition will we be leaving our precious planet in?  Or put in a different way, unlike the Twilight Zone episode where you can select a body to replace your current one, all we personally have are the skin we were born in.  How much junk can we put in it (mentally, physically, and spiritually) before it reaches it cracking point?  Scary thoughts…Yet, we are more aware of our environment than the generations before…

So, do we respect and conserve our precious resources?