(with all due respect to John Lennon)
Imagine
Imagine a world with no songbirds, dead oceans, and air so toxic to breathe that we have to live in hermetically-sealed domes and to venture outside is instant death.
Imagine a world in which we are so overcrowded that stress levels are sky-high and unpredictable rages are commonplace.
Imagine a world in which we suffer from extended morbidity. We live longer but our decline into death is beset with sickness, prolonged, and undignified.
Or...
Imagine a world that enjoys the same biodiversity that we have today, with clean air, clean oceans, and pedestrian-friendly towns and cities.
Imagine a world in which we have the space and the leisure time to relax, breathe, and smell the roses, in which fitness, happiness and wisdom are prized over superficial beauty and material wealth.
Imagine a world in which the emphasis is on quality, not duration, of life; where death is accepted as a natural ending of a cycle, and the knowledge of that fact makes us live life with focus, purpose and a sense of urgency.
How will we decide which of these two futures becomes our reality?
We will join up the dots and see where they are leading us. We will ask ourselves: if we as a species continue as we are now, will we end up with the kind of future that will make us happy? Are we creating the kind of world that we want to live in?
We will recognize that we are creating our future through our every action and our every decision, every single day of our lives. We have damaged the earth less through nuclear disasters or wars or crises, than through a thousand million cuts inflicted by our careless habits and short-sighted ways.
But by the same token we are empowered to heal the earth and create the future that we want.
We can recognize that each of us as can make positive changes in our lives that will accumulate into a tidal wave of change for the better.
We can raise our children knowing that we are the stewards, not the owners, of this precious planet we are privileged to call home.
We can develop environmentally friendly habits and far-sighted policies that will ensure a cleaner, greener future, so that future generations will look back and thank us for being wise enough and strong enough to make tough short-term decisions for the greater good of the species.
If we pull together, we can make a world of difference.
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Well, maybe I exaggerate slightly. But there are only 6 hours left to vote in the Amex awards, to help me to do my little bit to save the world...
I am delighted that National Geographic Adventure Magazine has mustered its forces to assist in our last-minute dash for the line. See their rallying cry by clicking here.
Time is short, and it might take a miracle to get me into the Top 5 against some very stiff competition from other fantastically worthy projects and some powerful mailing lists.
But miracles do happen!
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Forgive me, friends, for I have sinned. It has been 6 days since my last blog....
This is not because I have been slacking - far from it. I had a whirlwind of events in Washington DC - the Ocean Champions reception, a planning committee of the Blue Frontier Campaign, 7 meetings with National Geographic, and the gala opening of Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian - and am now in New York for yet more meetings.
Plus I've had a whole load of great ideas for blogs I want to write - but just no time to write them. And tonight I've got 3 grant applications to write (boy, do I know how to have a wild Saturday night in the Big Apple!!).
So as an olive branch offered to my loyal readers, here is something I hope you will really appreciate but won't take me so long to write - the video of my departure under the Golden Gate Bridge, almost exactly 4 months ago.
Enjoy!!
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(Full size image available in my SmugMug gallery)
I've been totting up the list of casualties on the crossing from San Francisco to Hawaii - things that need to be replaced, repaired, or added before I set out on Stage Two next May.
It's a long list, and the sponsorship blues are setting in already. This morning I found myself yearning to be back out on the ocean. Then this afternoon I had a LONG brainstorming session with a friend to come up with some initial targets for sponsorship, and am now feeling more positive and energized about the prospect - well, marginally, anyway!
I realized that there is no point in running away from hard work - it is all a means to an important end, so I'll just have to buckle down and tackle it the same way I tackled the million-stroke row itself: one stroke at a time.
I've attached my spreadsheet as the picture to this blog. Hopefully you can Save As and read it if you are interested. And if you feel like making a donation or even signing up to a regular subscription to help out, please do!! Donate buttons are on the right ---->
The message for the next stage is going to be all about Green Energy, and using my row to help educate youngsters about taking responsibility - for their own futures and for the future of the planet. A vitally important message!
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