Editor,

“Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.” Isaiah 5:8.

Or, put another way, “Don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. They paved paradise and put it a parking lot.” Joni Mitchell.

The Greening Congregations of Whidbey invite you to join us 7 p.m. Friday, April 25 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation Freeland for the film Growthbusters: Hooked on Growth.

At 7 billion and growing, with 40 percent of the planet’s surface in food production and our effluence poisoning our land and water, it is clear that our growth-centric system is broken.

It’s not providing the happiness or the prosperity we seek.

Water shortages, hunger, peak oil, species extinction, even increasing depression are all symptoms of a deeper problem — addiction to unending growth in a world that has limits.

This film goes beyond prescribing Band-Aids.

It examines the cultural barriers that prevent us from reacting rationally to the evidence. From Las Vegas to Atlanta; Mexico City to Mumbai; the White House to the Vatican — it’s Wild Kingdom with a twist.

It looks into the psychology of denial and crowd behavior, explores our obsession with growth and our reluctance to address it while encouraging us to examine the beliefs and behaviors we must leave behind — and the values we need to embrace — so our children can survive and thrive.

Following the film, the Whidbey Environmental Action Network will discuss their 25 Years of celebrated conservation in Island County.

The times, they are changing.

As Will Rogers said, “Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.”

Don’t just sit there. Come on out for this important event.

Gary Piazzon

UUCWI Environmental Justice Committee