O-mama - Opinionated Moms

Camp Nissokone.  The smell of pine and Breck shampoo. Bunking with Jen and Wendy.  Late night giggles, panty raids and waking up to morning bugle calls to do the Pledge of Allegiance.  Chippewa and Ottawa cabins.  The beaver chant (seriously!).  Polar bear swims, archery and hiking through the woods looking at animal poop.  Good times… 

We learned a lot during those summers at good old Camp Nissokone.  We learned a little independence.  We learned to make new friends.  We learned to try new things.  We learned to appreciate our parents.  We learned to respect nature.  We were thrown together with kids from the cities and the suburbs into the middle of virtually nowhere, on a beautiful lake surrounded by trees of every shade of green.  Living in old cabins, singing songs, making lanyards, skipping stones, hiking the trails. The best of times.

There are places that impact who we are.  Camp Nissokone is one of those places.  It’s pure.  I don’t want a thing to change.  Year after year, I want to know that it smells the same and looks the same. Please don’t litter anywhere near it.  Don’t dump anything into the rivers that flow into my lake.  Don’t chop down one tree. Don’t step on one flower. God forbid, anything is ever compromised. Don’t touch it!  My kids need it.

Whether or not you believe in global warming, or the impact that man is making on the temperature shifts, it’s still interesting to step back and take the Earth at face value and consider just how wondrous it really is. The resources it provides.  The life it sustains.  The beauty of its shores.  The depths of its oceans.  The majesty of its mountains.  It is an astonishing place and we are only here for a blip in time. We have built roads and bridges, sky scrapers and ski lifts. We have drilled through its mountains and oceans.  We have crossed deserts and sky. We have cut down trees and laid tracks.  We have sent rockets soaring through space and built manufacturing plants all over the place.  Still the Earth takes care of us.

So, as temporary inhabitants who want to pass on the purity of so many special places to our kids, we need to take care of the Earth, too.  It is a simple lesson learned by the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America.  We don’t litter.  We put things back the way they were.  We clean up after ourselves.  We respect the natural wonders of our world and we try to do better for the next generation.  We leave it better than we found it.

We all have our favorite spots that make this world a better place for us, but when we hear that there are holes in the ozone layer…the polar ice caps are melting…the oceans are warming…the climate is changing, unless we see it or feel it, it seems too big to wrap our heads around.  As long as Camp Nissokone is o.k., then we're o.k.  But, the fact is global warming is happening.  You might not see it, but it is happening.  It starts small...chopping down trees to make space for the new strip mall or allowing motor boats on the lake...but, it has bigger implications...a change in the eco-balance of the lake has a ripple effect on the quantity of fish, on the color of the water, on the activities that go on at Camp Nissokone.  Eventually, things happen that you can see and measure. There is no question that global warming is happening and the question is not if man makes an impact on our planet...the question is to what extent?  Whether global warming is simply a natural phenomenon, man-made or a little of both? That is what skeptics dispute.  But, there is no question that it is real.

According to National Geographic, temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880 and that rate is increasing, making 11 of the last 12-years the warmest since 1850.   The polar ice caps are melting and coral reefs are dying off due to the increase in water temperature.  So, what do we have to do with it?  Many scientists (2,500 in more than 130 countries) have concluded that humans have contributed to planetary warming. Industrialization, deforestation and pollution have created water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide that trap heat within our ozone layer and increase the Earth’s temperature. Natural cycles in the Earth’s orbit also alter the planet’s exposure to sunlight.  The Earth has experienced heating and cooling cycles because of orbital shifts, but these recent changes have taken place over a much shorter period of time, which the vast majority of scientists attribute to man’s involvement.   We’re here, we are impacting the planet and it’s calculable.

You don’t need to be terrified that the world is going to end if you drink from a plastic bottle, but you do need to do your part.  Now that we know what’s going on, we have to be more aware of reusing, recycling and reducing our carbon footprint. We realize that temperatures are changing and it’s impacting us all.  We can’t see it every day and we certainly don’t need another thing to worry about these days, right?  Maybe we can control it, maybe we can’t.  But, does it really even matter?  Shouldn’t we just try to do better anyway for our kids?  We don’t have to go totally “green” and put solar panels on our houses (but if we do, we can get a tax credit!), but we can certainly do some easy things like recycle and carpool.   Use reusable grocery bags and water bottles.  Go vegetarian (cows make a lot of methane and there’s more methane than CO2 in the atmosphere!)?!  Just pick one thing and make a conscious effort to do better.  It is not that "inconvenient."

No matter what the politics or economics behind the talks and treaties, propaganda and pontification, it just goes back to Camp Nissokone and the lesson learned in Girl Scouts: “leave it better than you found it.”

Just for fun, here’s the Girl Scout law:

I will do my best to be honest and fair,

Friendly and helpful,

Considerate and caring,

Courageous and strong and

Responsible for what I say and do,

And to respect myself and others,

Respect authority,

Use resources wisely,

Make the world a better place, and be a sister to every Girl Scout.

If only we all lived by the Girl Scout law, Mother Earth would be proud!