celery pond

Scientists have said that by 2050, if we cut our carbon emissions by 80%, we can curb the most dangerous impacts of global warming.  That means reduction carbon emissions by 2% a year.  The Strathairns work with the 2% solution and the Sierra Club (see the site to get involved:  www.sierraclub.org/twopercent/.

Relying on solar energy and moving towards electric cars can lighten our carbon footprint.  Placing solar panels on your roof can cut your energy costs and help protect the planet.  In the case of the Strathairn family, through their joint efforts, it’s a means of one generation helping the next.

Hopefully, the crest of the wave of economic adjustments will move us all to act and think differently about ourselves, our community and the planet.  A shift of mind starts with the individual, then the family, the community, the state, the nation, and on into multinational efforts.  Start now.

It works to preserve the the abundance of the multifaceted life on Earth along with saving ecological systems by:

• “protecting natural areas and wild populations of plants and animals, including endangered species”
• “promoting sustainable approaches to the use of renewable nature resources;”
• “promoting more efficient use of resources and energy and the maximum reduction of pollution”

Their projection is to conserve 19 of the world’s most important natural places by 2020 and to significantly change global markets to protect the future of nature.

Wow! Happy Valentine’s Day Planet Earth. 

Don’t you think South Haven’s Valentine could be to conserve one of its most important natural places, Celery Pond, to significantly change the local and state awareness and markets to protect the future of nature right in our own back yard?  Yes!

Go go www.worldwildlife.org and send an email Valentine card that honors nature and her family along with a love greeting.

With a new administration in Washington DC and an economy that has everyone wondering what’s ahead, it’s clear that our resolutions require a new focus. 

Re-evaluate things: first on the resolution list.  This means that lots of things that we thought were so important, are being tossed aside.  More pressing needs are surfacing ie. just living (whether that be in one home, or more).

The ambitious plans for the public lands around Celery Pond seem like a mirage as hard issues face every level of business operation - retail, tourism, real estate…and the list goes on.  The good news is that our habits are being forced to change and so too, our thinking.

Saving a wetland and the adjacent floodplains, with their automatic, natural filtration system, seems like accepting a gift from heaven.  Spending millions of dollars to open a channel and loose the wetland for boats and luxury craft is hard to visualize by contrast. 

The Pond Advocates, who have been so loyal in their efforts, know that their continuing support to save the wetland is the way to go. 

Honoring the migrating bird population that visits South Haven, and the other wildlife that uses the Pond, is as important as greeting every visitor with a smile who comes to share the magnificent shoreline and lands of South Haven.

We have such abundance around us - in the environment and the people.  Let’s move forward with a new focus to see what is really wondrous around us.