I’m no environmental saint, I wish I could say I was. I remember as a first grader all those many years ago, hearing about the need for conservation and saving the planet. Being an idealistic 7 year old, I fired off a letter to then-President Ford to express my concerns that the powers that be do what they need to in order to secure our planet for my generation and those that followed. I don’t think my parents mailed it, because I never got a reply. The words and emotions I felt that day, echo in my heart today. I fear not for my generation, but that of my daughter’s and of my future grandchildren and so on. If we don’t take steps to ensure that Mother Earth is cared for, we will face a man-made extinction someday. Denying something exists, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.

Every day, animal species are obliterated from the circle of life and too few mourn their loss. It is a running disagreement between my father and I about the value and/or appropriateness of hunting. Hunting to eat, is understandable to me, but to kill a beaver for damming up a creek on your property is punishing that creature for being what nature intended him to be and I feel a short-sighted view of our fellow living creatures. We as humans, the enlightened ones, continue to build and grow our own numbers while animals are pushed out of their homes and then we scratch our heads in wonder why that bear is wandering a suburb. The bear probably wonders what the suburb is doing in his woods.

I think that what Sir Richard is doing is commendable and it heartens me. I have enormous respect and admiration for him for doing this. Imagine if everyone contributed what they could to finding solutions to these problems facing our Mother Earth and our human race, where could we go? Sir Richard, and others like him renew my faith in mankind that maybe, just maybe, we’re not doomed after all.