Organization

Ask...then Act

Ask...it's such a simple word—just three letters, an active verb, defined as “to put a question about; to seek information.” The doing is simple, but it's result can be powerful. Asking empowers you.

Consider a student in class. He/she doesn't understand the concept under discussion. If she/he asks a question, additional information is given and a world of knowledge opens for him/her. If she/he does not ask, he/she remains in ignorance and cannot fully appreciate that knowledge is available.

Consider a citizen of a city/state/nation. Failure to ask means that her/his vote may be made in ignorance of the facts. Failure to ask may mean that wrong-minded government or corporate actions continue unchecked—partly because the agency doesn't know that citizens are concerned.

Consider what happens when you ask a question. You no longer blindly accept what you are told. You gain information that allows you to understand a problem. But, also analyze the answers that you get to see whether the facts make logical and scientifically accurate sense or are being twisted to fit an agenda. If they don't make sense, continue to ask until the answers are clear. You will then see what needs to be done to solve a problem. Then, you can ACT.

Here's an example...a recent television ad run by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI, a neoliberal [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism ] think tank) shows a little girl blowing on a dandelion seedhead. It has the punchline, “Carbon dioxide: they call it pollution; we call it life.” The ad goes on to imply that there are no detrimental effects of this chemical, CO 2 . What did you do when you saw it? Simply accept the “facts”? Did you think there was something missing in the information conveyed? Did you ASK?

Sure, we breath in O 2 and breath out CO 2 , and plants do the reverse during photosynthesis. But it's the BALANCE of these functions of life that evolved together to sustain our Mother Earth. These evolutionary processes occurred millenia prior to the Industrial Revolution and cannot compensate for the disproportionate levels of CO 2 contributed by manmade/industrial sources. It is these latter that are contributing to the current imbalance of CO 2 in the Earth's atmosphere and promoting global warming. So, yes...CO 2 is part of life...but out-of-balance CO 2 is NOT.

Lobbyists are telling our politicians that actions which could be taken to protect our environment will put us back in the Dark Ages when it come to the quality of life we've come to expect. Do you, like many of the politicians, have a knee-jerk reaction to this attitude? Or, do you answer the question: “What about the alternatives that science provides (or can provide given the resources for expedited research)?” We, standing on the side of science rather than lobbyists and Madison Avenue hocus-pocus, should be pointing out that we are asking for restraint--NOT outright elimination. We're asking for a sane approach to alternatives, rather than a blind march toward the ultimate destruction of the future quality of life on Mother Earth.

Finding alternatives is one of the strengths of scientific research. In reading Stafford's article on alternative fuels in this issue, you'll see that alternatives in transportation are in our near future. They will both assist in improving the current CO 2 imbalance and also help reduce and eliminate our reliance on fossil fuels. The article about the recovery of the ozone layer (see “ The Ozone Layer: Actions Can Pay Off ”) illustrates what happens when we ASK and then ACT in a logical manner. We do not need to make a trade-off between our quality of life and protecting Mother Earth; we can accomplish both if only we ask what we can do and then act.

Sometimes we fail to ask because we don't like what we think the answer might be. The Holocaust happened because the citizens of the world failed to ask. We could not get our minds around the idea that an entire population of human beings was being systematically eliminated by other human beings. Global Warming is threatening our planet—whole island communities are already forced to relocate. Fossil fuel reserves are sliding on the downward slope toward extinction. Can we afford not to ask what can be (must be) done? We've got to face this issue, regardless of how intimidating we find it, and find the solutions.

Ask what you can do to help maintain our Earth in a healthy state plus retain a positive quality of life for future generations.

Ask questions...analyze answers carefully.

Then, act.

Gayle

gayle@biotrends.org