On The Environment

Believe it or not, I have never seen An Inconvenient Truth, the presentation film by Al Gore, until the other night.

I didn't grow up in families that recycled. About the closest we got was at my Mom's when we put all burnable trash in a certain place, which my step father would burn, and we brought back soda cans for the deposit money. But, in the last 5 years especially, I have spent more time and energy being more environmentally conscience. We recycle everything we possibly can. We turn lights off when we we're not in that room. I run the washing machine on cold water cycle as much as possible to save on energy, we buy organic foods, when we build we're building solar, using geothermal heat...the list goes on and on. One of the things we don't do yet, which we are getting ready to do, is compost. My point is, we take the environment into consideration whenever possible. And this film really affirms the fact that it makes a difference and there is so much more we could be doing.

The facts about green house emission are undeniable. The Earth has heat up over the last 50 years in a way it never has before. CO2 emission is insurmountable. It paints a really scary picture. In fact, we've seen huge effects from global warming as it is...Katrina, typhoons in Japan larger than ever before, more tornadoes than ever before. Snow and ice is receding at an unbelievable rate. The movie shows pictures of places in the Arctics and mountains such as the Alps 50 years ago versus today. The difference is enough to make you gasp and hold your head. It's estimated that if the Earth continues to heat up at the same pace has been that sea levels will rise about 20 feet-enough to wipe out 100million people off the planet over the next 50years.

It makes me want to do more to save my home...planet Earth. It makes me want to shake our Congress and beat in to them the fact that they are going to kill our people, our animals and our planet if they don't instill some changes...and fast. Our cars need to be more efficient. For example, in Europe, you can't even drive a car if it gets less than 40miles per gallon. Here, that's obviously not the case. In fact, if you want a vehicle that gets 40mpg, you have to drive a hybrid...ridiculous! We have to encourage our businesses and new home builders to build "green" and turn to the Earth and Sun for our energy needs, instead of oil and gas.

I could rant and rave forever about this issue.

The truth is, I love nature. I love our planet. I feel for the polar bears who are swimming 60miles in a day just to find the ice to rest on. I feel for the blue whales who are dying in insane numbers because the water temperature is so warm, cyril can no longer reproduce at a pace that can sustain their appetite. I feel for the thousands of species who are the verge on extinction because their water supplies are drying up due to the record high temperatures over the last 10years. And, I feel for the human beings are have already died and the ones will die in nature's furies of storms caused from planetary temperature changes.

Anyway...recycle, compost, drive fuel efficient cars, turn your lights off...do whatever you can...Mother Nature needs our help!