It was 4,500 years ago that the Pharaoh Khufu said, “I want you to build me a tomb that will last for eternity.”  They did, and experts believe the Great Pyramid will stand for at least another 10,000 years.

In 1789 President Thomas Jefferson wrote, “No man can, by natural right, oblige the lands he occupied, or the persons who succeed him in that occupation, to the payment of debts contracted by him.  If he could, then he might eat away at the usefulness and value of the lands for several generations to come …”

That guys, was the President of the United States talking about the need for sustainability 230 years ago.

Okay, let’s get more up to date.  President John F. Kennedy stated in the 1960s, “It is our task in our time and in our generation to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours.”  It couldn’t be plainer, could it?  It’s another plea from a President more than 200 years later to embrace the culture of sustainability!!

Let’s get right up to date, President Barack Obama, into the 21^st century.  “Global warming is real, is happening now and is the result of human activities.  The number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.  Glaciers are melting faster; the polar ice caps are shrinking; trees are blooming earlier; oceans are becoming more acidic, threatening marine life; people are dying in heat waves; species are migrating, and eventually many will become extinct.  Scientists predict that absent major emission reductions, climate change will worsen famine and drought in some of the poorest places in the world and wreak havoc across the globe.  In the U.S., sea level rise threatens to cause massive economic and ecological damage to our populated coastal areas.”

A prelude to stringent and sweeping legislation on sustainability and the environment?  I think so!!!!

Here’s a quote from Richard Manning, July 2010, “I predict that because of the nation’s apathy towards sustainability in the past, coupled with the slow realization that becoming more sustainable is not an ‘if’ but a ‘when,’ we will see more environmental and sustainability legislation in the next 10 years than any other legislative topic.”

Guys, we need to, as individuals as well as businesses, embrace these issues before laws become enacted that will represent the biggest change to our lives ITHOE.

Tags: Legislation, Pharaoh Khufu, President John F. Kennedy, President Obama, President Thomas Jefferson, Sustainability

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 9:20 am
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