An Inconvenient Truth

I find myself sitting here, not quite late at night, but late for me. I’m watching the movie “An Inconvenient Truth”. For those of you that are not familiar with it, it’s Al Gore’s movie (a slide-show presentation would be a better way to describe it) on the effects of of humans on global warming. I’ve always consider myself well educated on the subject. I’ve read numerous articles on the effects of Carbon on this world, I’ve seen the numbers, I completely agree with the findings (although I’m not a qualified by any means to have my opinion count). I’ve also talked to friend and family about the subject and we all agree that “something” has to be done. I’ll repeat that! “Something has to be done”!!! we all say it, but like a good friend of mine posted, on a different topic, it seem like we are all expecting someone else to take responsibility. We are frustrated that the governments of the world aren’t doing enough. Don’t get me wrong, some are and at least are moving the right direction, but the big offenders, yes, I’m talking about of good southerly neighbors the US, aren’t!

Regardless, WE, don’t seem to be taking responsibility for our own day to day actions. We spend energy as if it was a renewable resource, but every What we use introduces more Carbon into the atmosphere. Here are some of the things I do:

• I drive my V6 car across town on average 4 times a day
• I sometimes leave the light on when they don’t need to be on.
• I don’t have energy efficient appliances (Those things cost money after-all)

Granted, I don’t do that much, but I am still contributing at least 1 to 2 more tones of Carbon into the atmosphere every year then I should be!!!! That’s just me!!! We pump, collectively and world wide, 7 MILLION tons of Carbon into the atmosphere EVERY day!!!!

I find myself clenching my teeth as I wach this movie or read another article. It bothers me that we, as individuals, aren’t taking the accountability for our actions.

The same friend (www.melle.ca) accused me of acting and talking like a chick today. She was absolutely right. I found myself shedding more then just a few tears while thinking of the magnitude of this problem. I find myself fuming at the lack of action being taken (my actions, or lack thereof, included).

We WILL be seeing changes, and drastic ones at that, within the next 50 years. Now… I don’t know about you, but just might make it to be 80 years old (I’ll have to give up my bad habits, but that’s for another post). But I SURE AS FUCK know my daughter will live to be 57 and her children WILL live to be 30!!!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m as big an offender as anyone in this country and I think that’s what’s making me so bad. That and the fact that this particular problem makes me feel conflicting things.

I feel like I can make a difference, that I must make a difference. That if I do it others will do it, others are already doing it. If enough of us start doing something, we’ll make a difference. On the other hand I sid down and think: “7 MILLION TONS of Carbon, every fucking day. What in the hell is my 1/183 Tons of carbon a day going to do?!?!?”

Well, let’s see, there are roughly 400 million people in North America (I’m not sure if this number is fully accurate, but it sound right to me, correct me if I’m wrong). Let’s assume that only 1/2 of those people help shave 2 Tons a year. And let’s do some rounding, cause my arithmetic skills suck and it’s late at night. That works out to world wide reduction of about 1 MILLION Tons per DAY!!!!

Well, well, that’s 1/7 the global number. All of a sudden, it doesn’t seem so impossible.

But it’s not so easy….

I will do my part, because I’m pissed off and because I work as hard as I do to make sure my daughter has the best life possible. I can buy her all the education and things in the world, but it won’t do her any good, if the planet won’t be here for her and hers. And I don’t think I could hold my head up and look her in the eye when I’m 80 years old if I’ve had a hand in getting us there.

I leave you with these:

Ten things to do
What you can do

There’s plenty more, all you have to do is care enough to look for it.

 CORRECTION: turns out it’s 70 MILLION TONS not 7!!! I guess we’re more fucked then I thought.