Pollution

I'm really worried about the environment. I don't know how you couldn't be. Unless of course, you live in "the now" and don't put much thought into what's happens tomorrow. Or you vacation on ritzy Mediterranean beaches or expect a picture perfect Olympics.

Everywhere I turn, it seems Mother Earth is crying on my shoulder with her big, acid rain tears, whispering with her 100 mph hurricane winds "help me, help me," and yet as Beijing tries to cover their smog with a big aerosol can of air freshener, Mother Earth is clawing at my ankles with jellyfish pleading that my small little herb garden is not enough. And I know that it is not. Pollution not only grayed our skies and suffocated our fish, but it's like it's seeped into every aspect of our world. The economy is polluted. Politics are polluted. Our food is polluted. Society is polluted.

Jellyfish, from the shores of Long Island Sound in Connecticut to the shores of St. Tropez in the Mediterranean, are invading. The stories I have read in our local papers and Time magazine paint it as a "look who's going to ruin your summer vacation" story instead of a "look who's lives you have ruined because you enjoyed one two many lobster rolls on your vacation." It is apparently no big mystery why there is the sudden onslaught of jellyfish - less tuna, shark and other big fish due to overfishing means less predators eating the jellyfish. (That, and rising water temperatures.) Some of the more prestigious towns have invested thousands of dollars and Euros to install nets offshore to keep the gelatinous blobs away from card paying customers. Doesn't it seem like there might be a better use of these funds? Now, if I am paying thousands of dollars to go bake in the Mediterranean sand, of course I'm going to be disappointed if I can't also enjoy the crystal blue Sea. But at least I might think twice before ordering the tuna tartar for dinner. If I'm just encouraged to soak my sunblocked body in the water because my 5 star hotel has made arrangements to hide the pesky stingers from me, I might think my carbon footprint disappears with the tide and go for the tuna and the mahi mahi.

It's like trying to hide the fact that Beijing is covered by a constant blanket of smog thanks to progress and "modernization." How about instead of trying to temporarily clean it up, they just the world see how quickly China has risen to (almost) become the world's biggest polluter. Again, if I have tickets to go watch Michael Phelps win a historic eighth medal, would I be more comfortable somewhere where I didn't have to wear a mask to breathe? For sure. But if I see how bad it really is, maybe just maybe, I and the 5,000 people surrounding me in the stands will be inspired to do something. If I see how clean and fresh the air is, I might get to thinking that Al Gore is the one full of hot air. Why not use the Olympics or the pain of dealing with jellyfish on your vacation as a platform to get people motivated to do more, no matter how little. Covering up the damage we've done is like censoring information on human rights violations in Tibet, Darfur and Myanmar and pretending the holocaust didn't exist.

The environment is not a collective, dirty little secret. It's dirty but it's no secret. It's becoming the elephant in the room. We can't just keep pretending like there is no problem (or that it's someone else's) and hope it just goes away. The jellyfish will keep coming. The hurricanes will just get stronger and the smog will eventually suffocate us all. Mother Earth is talking. How about we stop trying to talk over her and just listen?

NASA wants more money to launch more rockets into orbit but I'm sure they haven't come up with a hybrid or alternative fuel spaceship. I guess there is hope that once we have really, irrevocably destroyed this world, there is always Father Mars.