If you place a frog into a container which is filled with hot water, it will jump out immediately. If you put the frog into a container of cold water, and then slowly warm the water, the frog will calmly sit until it dies.
This take kept me a prisoner of my thoughts. It came to my mind when flying to San Francisco. I looked out and noticed the smog everywhere. If these toxic gases appeared suddenly, people would be out in numbers, protesting to save themselves.
But this did not happen overnight. It took many years, and most people have forgotten what is clean air like. In many ways, we resemble the behavior of the frog. We do have to do something against acid rain. The world gradually gets used to the fact, that over the years air pollution destroyed many forests, waters, and the fish in them, and we have many years yet, before the water will become hot in the container. One day it will be too late to jump out of the container.
The acid rain is a commercial illness, mysterious, and we can’t imagine and figure out how to fix it, or do something about it.
Since we don’t exactly know how to start doing something about it, indifference takes place. Even though understanding the complaints against acid rain, politicians and industry leaders look at it as part of development. The 19th-century American writer, Henry David Thoreau wrote: “Why think of having a house, if there is no planet where I can build it. Scandinavian lakes and Central Europe’s forests are showing signs that our planet is becoming ‘intolerant.'”
The last few years I worked in places in California on two farms, and they were involved in environmental protection. Six-to-12-year-old kids came to spend two weeks there. Kids from cities, who have not seen how we milk cows, they have never walked in a forest. This type of awareness to teach our children is very important, and we hope, that the younger generation will not be indifferent to our environments.
We get used to being in “lukewarm” water, and one day it will be too late to “jump out of the pot,” just like the frog.
The biggest danger is fighting against acid rain is indifference! We have to have a campaign involving all the countries, communities in the world against acid rain, and awareness of its dangers to humans, animals and nature.
Gale Warner
This article was transcribed into English by Myra Sarkadi. The original article in Hungarian was published in Természetvédelem, Fall 1985.