Blog Action Day for the Environment

Today is international Blog Action Day for the Environment.

I have included in my Detroit Daily Photo Blog, four pictures from Detroit:

1)The first is a torn flag on a gravestone (The flag was litter)(The gravestone represents death!). It's autumn (this could be symbolic of the end of the earth if we aren't careful!). This is both an international and a NATIONAL problem, but our nation and our nation's leaders are failing to take the bull by the horns. We need to deal with our national and international environmental problems. Make your voices heard.
2)The second pile of trash contains a boot and a duck. Besides the actual litter problem, the human boot and the "dead duck" and the human boot are symbolic of what we are doing to the environment and its affect on wildlife and animals.
3)The third image is a discarded doll. Besides being actual litter, an environmental problem in itself, the doll is symbolic of what we will do to ourselves, our children and our grandchildren if we continue on our current path.
4)The third image is an old discarded record--litter. It is symbolic of the end of pleasures and joy if we continue on our current path of environmental degradation. Bird song will end, and music will end and everything we know will end. Period.

All these pictures were taken in Detroit. I think Detroit's biggest environmental issue is the automobile industry. They keep cranking out HUGE gas guzzling, polluting cars? Why? Because Detroiters and Americans BUY THEM. What can you do to help? But the smallest possible least polluting car you can find that will work for your needs.

What else can you do? Write the president, write your congresspeople. Help clean up your neighborhood. Stop smoking. Invest in environmentally friendly stocks and bonds and mutual funds. There are millions of things you can do. Don't water your lawn--it's supposed to estivate in the summer. Don't buy excess packaging. Shop at the farmer's market, patronize your local farmer. Buy local. Read about it. Every single step we take, however little, when multiplied by the many makes a huge difference. YOU and I can help! We must!

SUVs

No view of Detroit would be complete without motor vehicles, since Detroit is the center and hub of automobile manufacturing. People here are rabid about cars, the bigger the better. Most parking lots are full of gigantic SUVs. Most (many) people here have NO CONCERN about the environment, pollution or the rampant use of rapidly depleting resources, I'm sorry to say. This is one of the things that makes me sad about living here. This picture was taken at one of the many car dealerships that line Mack in Detroit. (Now I'll probably have a burning cross in front of my house for dissing big Detroit -made cars. I appreciate the car industry, I do--Biker Buddy works at GM. I just wish they'd make a larger percentage of smaller, more energy efficient cars and that Detroit people and everyone else would drive smaller cars.)[In Europe, when I was there, almost 99% of the cars were small and tiny.]

PS: don't forget I'll be away and incommunicado all next week.