The pace of change is accelerating all around us as our society strives to ensure the human race does not outlive the ability of our planet to sustain us.

Anglers can be assured we are will not be left unaffected by the actions and reactions that are happening to reduce the impact of the footprint we all leave on our Earth. We also can be proactive in our personal efforts to reduce the carbon we contribute to our precious atmosphere.

How so?

I am reminded of the credo “reduce, reuse, recycle.” It is a great starting point for anglers who feel it is time they take stock of what they do and how it impacts our environment. Consider that every little bit helps. If we all do something, anglers’ collective impact can be significant.

Our first step ought to be reducing what we consume.

Think about your own fishing trips. Do you leave your tow vehicle’s engine idling while launching your boat? Minutes of unnecessary internal combustion ignition waste gasoline and produce carbon dioxide yet do no productive work.

Likewise, do you leave your outboard running while your boat is tied to the dock as you park your tow vehicle and walk back to the lake?

Do you conserve the plastic baits you use for crappies, walleyes, bass and other fish? Unless a lure is rendered unfishable, it usually is capable of catching multiple fish, but some anglers insist on threading a fresh bait after every catch. A significant amount of carbon is emitted for every batch of plastisol melted and poured into fishing lures.

We also can reuse fishing line instead of frequently respooling with fresh line. Consider that the line deep in the reel is often as fresh as the day you bought it. Many anglers now are winding line from one reel to another to get a few extra months of casting and catching after transferring used line to another reel.

When your line finally faces its final day and it’s time to add fresh, be sure to properly recycle the old stuff.

Use the fishing line collection stations at Berlin, Milton, Shenango and other lakes. Some fishing line marketers now are including postage paid envelopes in their packaging to use for returning old line to be recycled.

When your plastics are no longer capable of holding properly on your hook, store the tattered remains and turn them over to a person who will remelt and pour fresh baits.

Get ready for the day when your gasoline-powered truck is obsolete. Lordstown Motors is showing us clearly that electric trucks will get us to the water and home at a fraction of the carbon we currently spew to the sky.

Much already has been done thanks to clean air and water regulations. I remember when Lake Erie was too polluted for walleyes and smallmouth bass. I remember when the Mahoning River was literally a sewer. I remember when the Ohio River ran with ribbons of orange water pouring in from industrial outflows.

Those days are behind us.

But there is much we still can do, if only we take the time to consider how we can collaborate with the movement to do less harm to our world.

Hey, we can ignore the green movement, even decry it as an overreaction by people who say the sky is falling.

But to look away from the issue puts us at risk of soon finding our waters too fouled, our air no longer breathable and life being sucked from our land, lakes, rivers and seas.

Who’s going fishing under those circumstances?