The other night, we watched An Inconvenient Truth. I've known and have taken seriously global warming for a decade. The full impact of it has been creeping in over the years. Perhaps the first place was when I went to Alaska 6 years ago and saw the shrinking glaciers, as well as the devastation wreaked by the spruce beetle, which flourishes under the warmer conditions.
I also was more aware that people around where I live simply drove too much, they tossed trash into the streets, they bought too much, yet they didn't seem happy. Big cars, fat bodies, a sort of slothfulness about themselves that made me think they're really out of touch with their place in this world. Simply put, there was too much waste.
However, I also didn't (and still don't) relate to the Hollywood stars who espouse this stuff, then use up fossil fuels to jet-set around. Something never seemed right. So I did the small stuff, the easy stuff --recycled, bought awnings to reduce the inside temp, bought fluorescent bulbs, drove less, insulated my attic put in drought tolerant plants. I started buying less --clothes, shoes, I love them but I'm at that age, where I just don't want as much. I respect people like Nubia who commutes via train. I'm saving for a hybrid car once this old Volvo goes. Did you know that a gallon of gas produces 22 pounds of carbon dioxide? That trip from OC to ucla is producing 88 pounds each time I go? I'm starting to walk into town a lot more. Good for the environment and to get rid of this middle aged flab that I hate so much.
For the past few years, this has been enough. But no longer. Until I watched that movie, I never realized how dire things are. In fifty years, the amount of carbon dioxide is expected to be so high that life as we know it today will no longer be possible. It'll be hotter, there'll be fewer species, and the air you breathe will be utterly more toxic. But here's the hammer: in fifty years, my kids will be 60 and 66 respectively. And when I think of them, I desperately want to do something.
So I applied to be a speaker, trained in Tennessee. They'll select 1000 people to train. When they asked where I'd give a presentation, all I could write was Girl Scout and Boy Scout Leader groups, churches, AAUW, the public library, oh yeah... and the Pressmen. Really, I'm so lame. I'm not an academic, not a mover and shaker. I can't fill a hall. I'm no science person. I don't even have a laptop. I don't know how to use Power Point. I'm a writer, a mom, a person with a McJob. So when they asked my reasons, this is what I wrote:
"Because I see changing the way we impact the environment as a moral and practical issue. Because I have a blog that pulls in 1000 guests a week. I don't know who they are. But they find something compelling about what I see in this world. Because my goal has been to give voice to people or things that cannot speak themselves, like children with special needs. And mostly because of this: I was raised around farms and rivers. We were conservatives, taught to shoot straight. And when we didn't hit our target the first time, we simply stepped in closer and got it the second time around. Addressing our environment is no different than baking a pie for a fundraiser. It has to be done."
Wish me luck. Probably they won't pick me, but what the hell, I tried.
Good for you, Kanani, fighting the good fight.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a small town where it is possible to walk everywhere, and it still amazes me to find reasonably fit people who use their cars for journeys that are easily reached on foot. The first year we were here, people would ask me if our car was in the shop when they saw me carrying shopping bags up the hill. When we lived in Japan, we did without a car for nine years, renting one only occasionally when we went on holiday. I also used cloth diapers on my kids and laundered them myself (yes, I know, I'm a glutton for punishment), composted everything I could, and recycled virtually everything else, as this is mandatory in most large Japanese cities. And I haven't used a clothes dryer or a hair dryer for the past twenty-five years.
Now, I don't see that what I do is impossible or terribly difficult, but you would be amazed how many people react with horror at the thought of hanging out their own laundry or walking half a kilometer to buy a bag of potatoes. It can be done, and yet a lot of people are convinced that my sort of lifestyle is unnecessarily arduous and uncomfortable. Cutting down on our use of electricity and gasoline can make a significant difference in national consumption (just look at Japan's energy consumption figures and compare them with America's and you get a good idea how big a difference). Why can't people see that by making a few lifestyle changes they can really make a difference?
Yes, the clothes line....
ReplyDeletethe only issue that we have here is that it's smoggy, and often when I hang the clothes out, it's possible to find dirt particles on the clothes.
So I have to time it. As soon as I think they're dry, I run outside. There's no hanging them on there all day, then going out later.
I'm also trying to get rid of the front lawn. It's a water waster, and frankly I'd rather just have gravel and stones. Or decomposed granite. Anything but this lawn that no one uses, but takes up water.