An Inconvenient Truth

Last night we saw An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's documentary about the global warming crisis. No matter what your political views are, get over them, see this movie and start fighting for change. People who say change it is too expensive are ignoring the fact that NOT to change will be 10x as expensive. The stronger hurricane seasons are causing massive amounts of damage and wreaking havoc on the insurance industry not to mention defaulted loans, lost wages, rebuilding costs, etc. Oil companies lost very expensive giant rigs due to these hurricanes. Flooding and droughts are also causing massive losses to homes, farms, forests and of course impacting our way of life. Little to no snowfall means glacier loss which translates to less glacier run-off which translates to a water shortage. We are lucky that right now, for humans, that means some brown lawns but it could get worse.

There are so many simple things we can do to reduce our footprint on the earth. In fact, this quiz can help you determine what your footprint is and offer ways to help you reduce it as can the other above link. Simple things like replacing your lightbulbs with more efficient fluorescents (we actually did this and the next month my electric bill went down almost $10), driving an efficient car, recycling and REUSING (why buy Tupperware when we throw away plastic margarine, yogurt, etc containers and wash sandwich bags rather than throwing them away after one use - I do this and it drives Rich batty but I don't care), limit your water use (if anyone out there still leaves the water running while brushing your teeth, shame on you) and VOTE for environmentally responsible politicians who will work to make bigger changes like reducing car emissions, increasing mileage standards for cars and protecting vulnerable ecosystems. That last thing can be a touchy issue I know but nature is smarter than we are and is actually set up to protect itself from itself i.e. the wetlands that used to protect areas like southern Louisiana that people decided to build canals through.

It's just so unbelievably obvious and I am flabbergasted that we have arrived at this point. We are not alone in this world so we can't get into our monster trucks and pretend it's not having an affect on the rest of the world.

Sermon over for now but please, please, please, do something. I am bringing a new life into this world and I would really, really like it if he got to enjoy it as much as I have.