Please save this earth.  It is our home – all of it.  From the icy Arctic to the snows of the Antarctic, through the temperate zones and the equatorial tropical areas. Today, the earth lies shattered, bruised and broken by a relentless human attack that shows little sign of easing. Everywhere, destruction of natural areas, of the rain forests continues as the demand for economic expansion accelerates regardless of the consequences to the health of the planet.

Where are the champions who will step forth to defend the planet; who will stand on the rostrum of public attention and demand a halt to this rapacious advance? Have our feelings for our mother earth faded completely, pushed aside by the urgent need for economic expansion?  Don’t we bleed as the forests go – do we feel no pain as species of wild life vanish?

Where are the sensitive people who love this Earth, who will cry out enough, who will demand that we take far more care of what is left, who will live differently so that they consume less and do not demand more and more? Who ask, not for a constantly increasing and affluent lifestyle, but who will settle for less because they love this Earth and the natural beauty they find here; and now, no longer can they bear the pain of this despoliation for the sake of an increasing production that doubtfully adds very much more of real value to the human expression.

And not for fear do they ask for an easing of economic expansion, not only because of pollution or the threat of destruction to the ozone layer and what this may bring, but because they love, really love, from the very depths of their being, this beautiful planet they live on. And they want it to go on being a delightful place to be on, for themselves and for those who come after.

Joseph Raffa