Back in August, I wrote a post about why The Green Guide for Horse Owners and Riders wasn’t about global warming and the recent eco-trends.
Recently the whole global warming news debacle has sparked even more debate about what is true and what isn’t. I’m not even going to touch the debate because I am not a scientist. And whenever you have laypeople trying to interpret science, you end up with Al Gore.
But here’s the thing – being a good steward of the earth and having environmentally horsekeeping practices employed at your farm isn’t about the global warming debate. Because you don’t have to be a scientist (or even Al Gore) to know that taking care of your little plot on the earth is the right, smart thing to do. We can’t waste the resources God gave us, we can’t employ farm management techniques that harm our land because no one is making any more of it – as my mom used to say ‘what you got is what you got’.
The problem with “Climategate” is that a large and powerful industry was started by a segment of society and they sought to convince consumers that they could BUY their way out of an impending environmental disaster. Buy more efficient cars. Buy an efficient house. Buy eco-friendly clothing. Buy a new furnace.
And the industry preyed on our emotions. It’s for our children and grandchildren. Sometimes I felt like yelling “it always is!!” at the screen. Aren’t we always supposed to look out for the next generation, what makes this so different?
Although I talk about the environment on a global scale in parts of my book – the vast majority of it has to do with just your corner of your world. As horse owners and members of the agricultural community, we all know that taking care of our land is the smart thing to do. It’s what our forefathers did and it’s why we all have the horses to enjoy today and the land to enjoy them on. Let’s just do what we’ve done and keep taking care of our environment in responsible ways.
