Extinction is not the only thing forever; it seems that plastics may run a close second. According to the new report issued by the National Academy of Sciences, each one of us in the United States generates 287 pounds of plastic, more than China and more than the entire European Union combined.
There is hope here, however. New Jersey, along with a few other states passed legislation outlawing single use plastic bags, which disintegrate and become microfibers in the fish you want to eat. Those sturdy bags you can buy at a grocery store are actually made from recycled single use bags – and they hold more food, not to mention all the other stuff we buy.
Then, there’s the litter that comes from people who really don’t care about how they or others live. Disposable masks have become much of the litter we see in our streets. It’s incomprehensible how people just drop their stuff onto a street on in a parking lot. It’s also sad that people haven’t been taught to care about the communities where they live.
Prayer for the Day
Horizon of hope, whose boundaries are never fixed,
Reveal your Spirit to us, let her enter our souls.
Infinite Creator, who breaks into our lives when we least expect it,
Remove our reticence to be bold and daring.
Impart to us the possibilities of new life in community
By bringing us into a circle of love and care.
We ask this in the name of him who shows us what is possible,
Even Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
Dr. Seuss, from his book The Lorax, aka Theodore Geisel (1904-1991)
There is no such thing as ‘away’. When we throw anything away, it must go somewhere.
Annie Leonard, Executive Director, Greenpeace USA
O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into God’s presence with thanksgiving;
Let us make a joyful noise to God with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God, great above all other gods.
In God’s hands are the depths of the earth; and also the heights of the mountains.
The sea is God’s for God made it, and the dry lands which God’s hands formed.
Psalm 95: 1-5