Our mother is in trouble and she needs us to step up. She has literally always been here for us, everyday, every moment, every instant of our existence here upon her: our mother, the Earth. We've failed her in many ways but she, like all mothers, is ever forgiving, though there is a limit to her benevolence. Like all mothers she will give, and give, and give but her cup is beginning to run out and she cannot give from an empty cup.

It's time for us to love our mother, earth. It's time for us to give her a break and take better care of all the beauty and bounty she gives us. We have been short-sighted and greedy with her gifts. It is time to shift the paradigm about our place and roll on our beautiful planet Earth. It's time for us to value the incredible resources and beauty she brings us over the false and greedy systems we have created to run our society. It's time for us to stop our practice of taking, demanding, misusing, destroying, and depleting our mother earth.

We are destroying our own home with no thought for the future. A future our children and their children and their children will depend upon and reap what we sow. We talk about protecting our children, loving our children and making a better way for our children. None of this can ever happen if the very planet they hope to live upon has been depleted. And we know that the Earth will live on. She is destined to be here longer than any one of us, but if we continue to deplete and destroy her she will not be a place where humans can survive. Is this the legacy we want to leave our children and their children and their children? What could matter more?

Here is the absolute Truth of it all: Everything is Connected! Everything we do affects our environment and each other.

1. We breathe out carbon dioxide and the trees breathe it in. The trees breathe out oxygen and we breathe that in. We are part of an ancient cycle of life and connection. Thus, we must better look at the whole - the bigger picture to create sustainable and symbiotic systems of life. One study found that the loss of the Amazon in South America directly affects the snowpack in the Sierra which provides water and resources for *millions. A 100% loss of the Amazon leads to up to a 50% reduction in the snowpack of the Sierra. That would be devastating. 

2. The ocean regulates the temperature of the Earth by moving water around the planet. But our burning of fossil fuels creates a blanket effect that heats the ocean, throwing it out of balance and keeping it from regulating temperatures as it is meant to. This leads to historic droughts, extreme rainfall, flooding and more. This negatively affects the lives of humanity, making water scarce, flooding areas people call home which causes refugee movement, hampering food production which leads to famine and food scarcity.

3. Changing climate also increases the spread and proliferation of disease by moving animals from their traditional homes to new ones, bringing them into contact with new hosts. It also improves conditions for vectors of disease like mosquitoes and ticks, spreading more and new disease to animals and humans. 

Throughout our history there have been times when we have gotten out of balance as a society and needed to reign in industrialization, damage to our environment and to humanity. This time is the most critical and potentially devastating challenge to our very existence on mother earth. We can and we must rise to this epic challenge. It begins with each one of us, as we look to ourselves first and how we live our lives and use, share and preserve our resources and by speaking up for and voting for change. Mother Earth needs us. It’s our time to step up. 

*Environmental facts adapted from education panels at Muir Woods National Monument in Mill Valley, California

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