Sustainable Life: A love letter to planet earth
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In honour of Valentine’s Day this Sunday 14 February, HerCanberra’s sustainability columnist Mia Swainson pens a love letter to the planet.
Dear Planet Earth
Thank you for providing an incredible place for me, and my fellow humans, to live and thrive.
I love your snow-topped mountains, their clear and bubbling streams, and snow gums that glisten after rainfall. I love your deep oceans and marvellous diversity of colourful creatures living in coral reefs, your sandy beaches and white sea eagles that soar above ocean cliff tops. I love your forests of spotted gums, wild cycads and bower birds that collect bright blue objects.
When breathing deeply to inhale fresh, clean air—I thank you. When my thirst is quenched with clear, sweet water—I thank you. When I eat ripe fruit and crisp vegetables in their season—I thank you.
I am sorry, oh so very sorry, for the scarring left behind by me, and my fellow humans, upon your beautiful surface.
I weep for the beautiful places and landscapes that have been destroyed, for the pollution that wreaks havoc with every life form sustained by you, and for the climate that is rapidly changing.
I wish to leave this life knowing the planet is in better shape than when I found it.
My gratitude and love for you, dear Planet Earth, can be shown with more than words. I will take action. In this precious lifetime, I will tread lightly.
I will go a step further than carbon neutral and aspire to live carbon positive by taking more carbon from the atmosphere than I use each year.
I will aspire to be living without waste, avoiding polluting by reusing and recycling. I will respect the water that I use by consuming what I need and reusing what I can.
I will strengthen your exquisite biodiversity around my very own home and beyond.
Like ripples in the ocean, the actions of one person can become amplified when we work together. I will share the love and reverence that I have for you, precious planet, by listening to the stories of others who are taking action to nurture you.
I will share the joy and happiness that comes by telling the story of my actions. I will take action, one step at a time.
I will feel good about the things that I am doing and not guilty about those things I am not doing.
Thank you Planet Earth. I pledge my love and gratitude to you by making small changes to my life when and where it is possible to do so.
