Becoming an Optimist by J.B Mackinnon

Rating: ****

This article is about an editor who recently realized that global warming is affecting us and though he is not hopeful he believes that there should be change in society and the attitude about our use of resources and enviromnet.

An estimated 3,000 walruses died along the arctic shores of the Chukchi Sea. Investigators found out it was a walrus stamped, crushed by one another as the terrified animals hurried onto the beaches and rocks near shore. But why would they panic so suddenly? Walruses have died in the past, so why is it such a big deal now? Global Warming. Not only are we starting to notice it but so are the animals. The author raised an important point; that we are the walrus. J.B attended a speech by a writer whose name is Derrick Jensen and he too raised an important point: " Every morning when I awake" Jensen writes " I ask myself whether I should write or blow up a dam, but it's not the writing that's killing the salmon in the Northwest, it's the dams" so why can't he blow up the dams? "because he is the dam". We are destroying our planet and the nature within without even noticing all the damage being done.

In 2003 J.B realized the Earth was changing. Not from the news or the fact that it had been the driest summer ever in B.C but the fact that the sky and air felt different and when the forecast's said there would be rain, he knew it wasn't coming, and it didn't. We have been here before, not exactly here but at this same junction where hope and optimism seem deeply misguided. People find they can help to save our planet but reality is there isn't much hope unless people actually get up off their butts and help make a difference even if it's something little.

I think this article effects everyone and it really made me realize that even though I do want to help stop global warming I don't do much. Sure I compost and recycle but lots of people just throw their trash on the ground,waste water and other valuable resources without even thinking twice. . If people continue to use and abuse our resources like this, then there really isn't much hope for having a clean and healthy environment to live in and sooner or later species are just going to die off until it's just us, then we'll die.

Mackinnon, J.B. "Becoming an Optimist". Explore march/april 2008. Issue 149. Print