The eve before New Year’s Eve in 2006, my mother and I watched “An Inconvienient Truth,” the DVD on the global climate crisis featuring Al Gore. I guess you could say watching it caused me to “wake up,” pretty shockingly and astutely. I awakened to the idea that apathy and ignorance, can actually do catastrophic harm to people. The apathy “disease” is also inclined to tell you, “don’t worry about it. This isn’t a real disease. You don’t really have to do anything about it,” while it cunningly eats away at your very existence and the resources you use to stay alive. It’s taken three years to come to what I believe is my second life epiphany-slash-resolution. But in short it goes like this: It’s not OK to lie dormant and satisfied with the status quo when it comes to the world climate crisis. It’s time to understand that my personal apathy absolutely affects more than me. The contagious and ficticious thought that “I don’t matter” is wrong. I matter because I’m a human being, living with way too many conveniences which are actually harming our environment. As I watched the DVD I kept finding myself thinking things like “this is crazy. This ought to be like the number one issue in government and business.” I was blown away by the urgency and magnitude of a HUGE problem I now embarrasingly realize that I, like so many others, have been pretty much ignoring. For whatever reason (and there are reasons – like the media), I didn’t choose to see global warming as a “real” problem which affected me, much less one that I could do anything about. But now I know that there are things I can do which can little by little, add up to decreased CO2 in the atmosphere, decreased threat of cataclismic environmental disasters and increased likelihood that my daughter might actually live out a full life and get the chance to raise children on this planet. I made some small but passionate first steps at going green tonight. The steps may not be “major” at this point, but they do matter, and from now on my new resolution is – to continuously illustrate that what I do with the environment – matters.
Just for the record, my first attempts to combat global warming were:
1) Researched hybrid SUVs – more on my findings to come soon
2) Changed the lightbulbs in three of my house lamps to CFUs – After I did this I realized I bought the wrong kind for indoor lamps: the light they’re putting out is pretty harsh-looking now, so I plan to get some “warmer” ones tomorrow.
3) Turned the thermostat down by a couple of degrees I really believe this is just the beginning of a longstanding resolution which will produce more satisfying results than I can imagine.
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…..
Ah… Winter in New England, freezing temperatures, people running in and out of buildings as if they were about to succumb to sudden frost bite and cold winds that blew through your body until every inch of skin felt the sting of the winter fury. Sound right…right? Nope! Think again, this winter is quite different and as those lines of that all familiar song rang through my head while driving back from Cleveland to Connecticut last week, it brought me back to the thoughts I’ve had this winter a winter without snow.
I remember all the past winters while growing up in New England, of the layers of ice that formed along the banks of streams and ponds. Today not a child can consider going home after school and play a quick game of pond hockey with friends or throw on a pair of skates to dance across the ice in Connecticut. It’s January and not one inch of snow has descended from the sky to bless us with a blanket of beauty and not one pond or stream has froze over. It’s been a very warm winter and until I can find evidence through research to disagree with me, it’s the warmest I remember in all my thirty years.
Where is the ice? Where is the snow? Is this the global warming that Mr. Gore spoke of so passionately in an Inconvenient Truth? Yes it is. And if any indication from this week’s projected weather report, Connecticut is still in a drought of cold temperatures. We will feel the repercussions of this in many different ways once this mild winter is complete and the bugs, pests and other insects spawn this coming spring. It’s wake up time, it’s time to notice how climate change will affect every facet of life and the repercussions of this on our lives and the lives of our children.
Four weeks ago, in the backyard the rose bush bloomed, as I described this to some co-workers people looked at me like I was crazy, but, after I got home and took another look, not only was the rose bush blooming, but the grass needed to be cut and some of the trees had begun to bud! The evidence of climate change is all around us if you have minute you might want to just take a peak outside of your window.
Totally. Thanks for your response and observation. Same phenomenon is going on in Cleveland, the second-most snowy city in the US of A. We’ve only had two significant snows this season and very, very few days when the temperature was below freezing. Normally we’re in the twenties and just waiting on the edge of our seats for the snow to hit, and hit hard. What’s even crazier is that people around here, some of them anyhow, actually are happy about it – whether it’s being caused by global warming or not. To me, it’s a glaring reminder that the planet is warming up – and fast.
For those people out there looking to find some quick things to do around the house to help, please check out the book called : IT’s EASY BEING GREEN by Crissy Trask.
Some hints: 1. Save old, tattered towels and T-Shirts for cleaning. Cut them into squares and they become useful rags that can replace store -bought rags and paper towels. (which I’ll be honest is my down fall, the paper towel addiction!)
2. Buy a front load washing machine;they are far superior to top loaders for saving water and energy.
3. Use your microwave. Cooking and reheating with a microwave is faster and more efficent than using the stovetop or oven, thus reducing up to 70 percent of energy use.
P.S. Upon driving to work today, NPR announced that this weekend will reach record hight temperatures in Connecticut.
take care,
t.d.
For more information on the trouble of our lakes and rivers in north america please go to: Trout Unlimited: http://www.tu.org
This conservationist site is devoted to preserving our water ways for many future generations to come.
Hello. just fully entuned to the present climate crisis, I am applying my governmental experience to seek key info. If you look at EPAs website, you can quickly see who the greatest contributors and who stands to make the biggest difference. Topping the list are the power generation, transportation and industry. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange
(the new politically correct term for global warming is “climate change”–still sounds pretty inocuous, don’t you think?
Due to corporate stinginess (tendency to follow path of least resistance/cost) changes will probabaly not transpire absent new laws to require change/ And federal state and local changes are needed. Call your city, and State and ask about pending legislation or “green” inititaves. You can visit this address to send a message to your state’s Senate legislators via Al Gore.
http://www.algore.com/cards.html