Nature is Ours to Protect

I once had a conversation with a very intelligent South Korean woman who was working in the local grocery store. I had told her that I had been listening to the Seoul, South Korea radio station on my short-wave radio and that I had heard a story about how the people of Seoul are doing wonderful things to re-create nature in the middle of their city. They are restoring a river which flows through the downtown and making nice parks on either side of it, as an eco-tourist attraction. I said that it would be nice if we could get the people in Toronto to do things like that too.

She replied that the reason why the South Koreans are taking care of their environment is that they feel that it is theirs to protect. They have lived there for generations. She said that the problem with Toronto is that no one feels that it is theirs to be responsible for. Everyone, of any race, is in a minority, when they compare their numbers to the total population. They are afraid that anything they do could be undone by other people.

Toronto needs to solve this problem, if our environment and, indeed, our future livelihood are to be protected. Multi-culturalism started out with the ideal that people could work together for the good of all, and that the society as a whole could benefit from the best ideas of so many different cultural backgrounds.

So, let's not stop in the middle. Let's keep affirming that nature is our collective responsibility to protect. Each individual can identify with nature and be aware of being an important part of it. All of us will benefit if we create a greener, pollution-free, more beautiful environment.