It’s not the Louisiana hurricane season or extreme heat that set me off.

No. It was a clear plastic cup from McDonald’s.

I woke up one morning and made coffee and headed to the front porch with Rosie the Cartoon dog and she, as she is apt to do, began barking wildly at something near the end of my driveway.

Rosie will bark at anything that appears out of place.

Once, when a windstorm blew a plastic chair across the lawn, she spent an hour growling and barking at it.

Why? Because it was not in its place.

On this day, Rosie was keyed on a shiny object that I soon realized was a plastic cup from McDonald’s, straw still dangling from the top.

Once I picked it up, Rosie huffed and proudly pranced back to the porch, as if she had just saved six infants from a fire.

“Why?” I asked myself.

My entire life I have seen bags of fast food scattered upon the roads.

Last week it was a large, white, plastic bag and a pizza box and a couple of small Cane’s boxes. And crumpled napkins.

Why would someone toss just a thing out the window of their car?

Because Mother Earth will take care of it.

Later in the day, I saw a small gathering of turkey vultures picking through the pizza and chicken boxes.

Of course, they did not eat the boxes of plastic bags or the fast-food bags on so many roads in so many places.

A McDonald’s cup at the end of my driveway?

No. It’s not just that.

We humans are out of control and Mother Earth is fighting back.

Can we please stop?

We go on and on and debate this and debate that, all the while the west burns and floods ravage and hurricanes destroy everything in sight, and our ice caps are melting, and animals are dying, and people are dying, and all around us are signs of what is yet to come: Total destruction.

Climate change? Hoax. Let’s debate it for another 50 years and see what happens.

Our entire world is affected yet, we do nothing.

We have a virus that is affecting the whole world and yet, we argue and riot and fire bombs at each other.

Remember the ozone layer?

That was my generation’s “get under the school desk” drill.

That was all we talked about. The great hole in the ozone that will kill us all.

I don’t remember anyone questioning it. I don’t remember it being a “political issue.”

Maybe I’m wrong but all I remember is the nation and much of the world coming together and banning hair spray.

And whatever else shot fluorocarbons into the atmosphere.

Mother Nature appreciated the gesture but it is/was not enough.

No. We still poison our rivers and lakes and oceans and air.

We still argue and debate science.

Really?

We are doomed as a planet if we don’t stop.

Mother Earth is and has been warning us for hundreds of years and now She has blown her Mother top.

Ever seen a mother blow a fuse? It’s not a pretty sight and there is no stopping her once she gets going.

Mother Nature is on a roll.

This isn’t God punishing us. This is Earth punishing us. Warning us.

Earth is spontaneous and volatile and moody. She also is patient and caring, much like our ideal moms.

The Earth has everything we need to survive and to thrive and, yet, we trash Her.

She has accepted our waste for thousands of years, Recycled it. Gave it back. Replenished what we took.

We got greedier and greedier with each generation until now, the greediest and most antagonizing generation in history.

What did you think would happen?

Mother Earth blew her Mother top.

Oh, she warned us it was coming. A bit of flame here, a bit of flood there, a few species completely gone.

As they say, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

It is time, or maybe it’s too late, to wave the white flag. Throw in the towel. Stay down for the 10 count.

Tap …The … Hell … Out.

Set aside our differences.

Forget the many, many problems we face right now and focus on how to save our planet, if it’s not too late.

Then, dammit, can’t we all just get along?

Oh, and until then, if I see someone throwing a bag of fast food onto the side the road, well, I just may blow my Mother top.

Scott DeSmit is a general assignment reporter for The Daily Iberian. He can be reached at desmitmail@yahoo.com