Climate Control
It’s been a long few weeks, "fight-the-good-fight" wise. In this corner we have our challenger, Ms. Greta Thunberg, speaking words of wisdom, lending an intelligent and urgent voice to a matter plaguing us all. And in this corner, we have literally every institution causing the plaguing of us all. Lobbyists, politicians, the Nestle corporation (and many others) and even your neighbor, who parrots the latest Fox News soundbytes at you while you mow the lawn.
“Our house is on fire!” Greta famously said, voice shaking with a heady mix of fear and rage.
The patent response from the opposition is that she’s a paid actor. And? So what if she were? Does that change the fact that we’re pulling whole plastic bags out of freshly caught fish, or that there is a 600,000 square mile island of trash floating in the Pacific? Does it change the fact that bottled water manufacturers are really just plastic manufacturers? Or that, thanks to them, you (yes YOU) are consuming an amount of plastic to equal a credit card every single week?
But I digress. What was my point? Oh yes. Our house. It’s on fire.
As these last several weeks have unfolded, we’ve all had plenty of time to consider that change needs to come, but that we each can’t do it alone. There needs to be a collective shift in the way we live, and the responsibility we take for ourselves. The major corporations need a major overhaul too, but that’s a different thing. I’m talking about a cultural shift, a taking back of our personal power, a conscious choosing of what’s right for us and not just what’s convenient.
It’s taking a reusable water bottle and using it, not emboldening Nestle further.
It’s buying an appropriate vehicle, if you even need one. Not a beefy SUV to make you feel better about yourself.
It’s understanding that your eating habits do not just affect you, but the world around you too.
It’s making conscious choices. We’ve been made unconscious by the corporations. We need to wise up.
The last few weeks have brought tropical storms to the Puerto Vallarta area, and it sure has packed a wallop this time around. Even the downtown core got hammered, which rarely happens, causing flooding and property damage to homes that have been enjoying a relatively mellow existence for a good long time now. And outlying communities, they’ve been devastated. Whole livelihoods, gone. Wiped out. Businesses destroyed, right before high season. You like to hike to the Quimixto waterfall and have lunch there? Not anymore you don’t.
At least, not until we fix it all back up. And it’s going to have to be us, there won’t be any help from “the powers that be”. Just as we can’t count on any of the major corporations to ever do the right thing by the people or the planet, our neighbors can’t count on any assistance from any governing body. Frankly, sadly, this is nothing new.
But, we always get by with a little help from our friends. The outpouring of support from the community has been fantastic, and we’ll need to keep pushing for a while. If you’re inclined to help, please check Facebook. There are myriad groups pulling together donations, or you can reach out to us here at the Tile Park if you’re stuck for ideas.
The earth is not ours, we belong to the earth.
And at times like these more than ever, we belong to each other, too.