Johnny Allison of Lewis and Clark’s Sustainability Club

Photo: Provided by Johnny Allison

 

Johnny Allison
Sustainability Club Member

I have always been concerned about the environment. it’s probably due to my exposure to nature when I was a child. I remember when the entire family would take short vacations in the Ozark Mountains.

It was strange how the city would eventually “wear off” over a period of a few days. It was then that I could hear nature come alive all around me, I could actually hear the grass brushing up against itself, and the leaves fluttering in the breeze. Wildlife suddenly sprang up in every direction. Butterflies, lizards, snakes, etc. It was amazing !

They didn’t come out and reveal themselves to me all of a sudden. In fact, it wasn’t them getting over their shyness of me, it was me getting over the usual way of responding to the environment. What I gained from these outings was a deeply seated appreciation of nature that would never leave me.

As I grew older I began to notice subtle changes taking place all around me. The traffic on the highways was getting heavier and heavier every day. The trash and litter became more noticeable; more prevalent. I could not understand how so many people could be so negligent.

Then the thought came to me that many of them never had the luxury of going to the country and experiencing it the way I had in my youth. Maybe they just don’t know there are other dimensions of consciousness to be experienced besides what they’ve become used to.

It is true that we have lost many species to extinction however the greatest loss, in my opinion, has been our overall respect for nature.

It’s somehow easier to ignore the fact that a lot of us just don’t seem to think that the environmental issues we are facing today have any direct relationship to who we are or what we do in our everyday lives.

It may be true that we as students are very busy keeping up with the drudgery of homework and other related assignments. Sometimes it seems as though there are just “more important things to be concerned about.”

There is a formula at work here: Overpopulation added to over-consumption added to careless attitudes and outmoded thinking patterns. I for one think that it all comes down to how we think. If our thinking is wrong then the results will be less than satisfactory.

A common response is: “Nothing I do or don’t do will ever make a difference.” That is just plain wrong thinking in my honest opinion.

How are you thinking?

We can make a change. All it takes is a shift in consciousness, being more aware of how we dispose of our wastes, more conscientious of the things we are apt to take for granted.

Get involved! We in the Sustainability Club are here to help you do just that. So please, help us save the planet. It can happen, it has to happen!