Is it me, or is this year different?
I don't know if it's because of Al Gore's - An Inconvenient Truth, or maybe the launch of The Discovery Channels mini series - Planet Earth, but Earth Day is different this year. It was actually a big deal with media coverage everywhere you looked. Global warming has been a hot topic for years (since the early 80's) but this year the issue seemed to hit a peak.
It's really scary to think about what's happening & that the US is to blame for the majority of the destruction. This country is all about consumption & having "more". While watching all of the media coverage I asked Bill if he thought it would make a difference. Americans are pretty stubborn people who resist change like it's the end of the world. Oddly enough, if there isn't change, it could be the end of the world as we know it.
We are a pretty conservative family. Of course we could always do more (be better at recycling, using less water, change our light bulbs to CFL bulbs), but I must admit that we're not conservative to be eco-friendly, we're conservative to save money. Which I guess is fine because we're consuming less & in turn having less impact on the environment. But as of yesterday, I think we might be a little more proactive in our conservation, not just to save a penny, but to really try to do what we can.
Bill had to work, so I decided that it would be a good idea to take Logan to the park & walk the 20 mile trail again. While at the park, I noticed how much trash there was. Gum wrappers in the grass, cigarette butts in the sand & all sorts of gunk that Logan tried to pick up & eat. After we had fun running around & he wore himself out, we headed off down the trail. I noticed the numerous plastic bags in the creek, trash littering the open spaces & the smell of the inner city creek water.
We have a long way to go to protect the environment.
While the hype may have inspired me to take a second look at our small city & notice that as a family & a community, we seriously need to make some changes...has it done the same for everyone else? Are people taking this seriously? Does anyone else see how gross the world is getting & that our children's playgrounds are turning into dumps?
Our Roots
- Kristin
- Colorado
- I married my soul mate 10 years ago. We got married very young & we are very thankful that we did despite what other opinions may have been. It gave us a chance to grow up together & learn how to ride life's roller coaster ups & downs as a team. We had some good friends & adventures in Vegas when we started out. Then we hit a fork in the road & moved to Portland, OR so I could go to school & pursue a career in chiropractic. That's where we learned that sometimes life has plans for us other than our "perfectly mapped out" one. Bill got a promotion that moved us out to Colorado, somewhere he's always wanted to live, but a place where my thoughts of chiropractic school would die. Marriage is all about compromise, so we made the move to bigger & better things. As we continued to be successful at work, it felt like there was something missing. That's when I started to think about having a baby. As a stay at home mom to Logan, life was everything we wanted it to be. Then we were crazy enough to do it again & soon added Carter to the family. This is our adventure raising two boys in the Rocky Mountains.
Branches
8 comments:
This is something D and I feel VERY strongly about. We watched "Inconvenient Truth" this past weekend and were rendered speechless through most of it. We take it very seriously, as do a few people I know.
Judging by Queenslands (my state) water restrictions vs usage just since easter, we have to conclude that Queenslanders just don't care. We are on level 5 water restrictions right now, but people are still wasting it like it's available. More and more and more people need to be made aware of this somehow. It's our only home.
Since watching Oprah on Friday, she had a whole "Green" show. Z and I are wanting to change a lot of things. The light bulbs are going to be our first change. I hope that everybody will decide to make small changes, because if everybody changed even the smallest thing, it would have a big impact.
I was never brought up in a particularly environmentally-conscious family, but we NEVER littered. Maybe it was the Woodsy Owl public service announcements--"help keep Ameraaa-ca looking good. Hoot! Hoot!"
I just can't wrap my brain around someone pitching a soda can out the car window, dropping gum wrappers or empty McDonald's bags on the ground.
We switched light bulbs, and not only are we saving money on electricity but we're changing them less often. I still try to remember to turn off lights in rooms I'm not using, but now that I'm home more with Henry, I feel like I'm consuming more energy than ever.
Hmm...I have to ask you. As you were on your walk, and saw all of the litter laying around. How much of it did YOU pick Up? It's nice to write about this but you should also walk the talk. Otherwise that's just hypocrisy....
Good Lord! Do people who leave anonymous comments have lives?
No, I didn't go on a full out "let's clean up the entire stretch of 20 miles" trash pick-up. I did however, pick up the trash that Logan tried to eat at the park.
We started watching the Planet Earth thing every Sunday night with the DSes. It's a blast.
So if humans are causing this increase in temperature now,...Wtf caused these increases in the past? And why are those causes and reasons dismissed so readily today?
I mean, everyone does realize that there were times when the earth was significantly hotter than it is now right? These periods occured even before human existance altogether. So what caused it then, and why is that reason dismissed today?
Furthermore, this increasive trend that we are currently on has been going on for the last ~200 years. The majority of that temp. increase occured prior to 1940. PRIOR TO THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION! In other words, humans weren't even omitting C02 in measurable levels when this rise in temp. began.
Doesn't anybody see the holes in this theory? The global warming fear campaign is exactly that. It's a means of implimenting change all the while giving us justification for continuing to oppress (so called) 3rd world countries. Because if they industrialized like we did, what would that do to C02 levels errr oil prices.
Get it?
While you may be playing devils advocate with global warming & focusing on the "what if" scare factor, what about the "what's happening now"? Global warming doesn't take away the fact that our parks & playgrounds look like trash heaps. Global warming has nothing to do with the cigarette butts that Logan finds in the sand when he slides off the slides.
Things are getting pretty gross out there & I know that we as a family could do a better job with recycling & conservation. I know that our town & community could do a better job too.
I think it goes beyond the "what might happen". It really comes down to personal responsibility for our selves & our own waste.
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