Today is Earth Day, so what am I doing about it? Well, now that it is getting warmer and sunnier here in Austin, I decided I needed to get me a clothes line. I now have that, but the forecast is rain for the next few days and not really any good clothes-drying weather. But anyway, it got me to thinking about all the hype about the ability of an individual to effect change.
I got seriously afraid that this whole effort is akin to how my husband views our budget:
"Honey, it's not the $15 we spent on McDonalds that's the problem - it's the big things."
Ok, I may have ahem...underestimated the spending on those particular food items, but the point is the same. Can I, as a person, really make a change in the overall prognosis for Earth? Are the small changes I am making good and beneficial, but at the end of the day not significant enough, because it is the bigger fish (whole industries, companies, governments), that would truly make an impact?
I was listening to a recent podcast on NPR Science Friday of an interview with Bill McKibben - the founder of 350.org and one of the first persons ever to write (a book) about global warming. The key idea I took away from this interview was that, the reason why you and me matter, is because we are the small fish that will make the big fish go where we want them to. Without the support and urging and political action of every one of us, there is little political will to take action urgently. Action which has to occur at the government level. That is why we are important.
Ok, so I feel better about that. I was pleased to see that my son's daycare (he goes 2 times/week), switched some lights off for Earth Day (which I ignorantly switched back on again), but that is more awareness than I saw last year.
The question is, will it be enough, in time?
p.s.
350 parts per million, the safe upper limit of the amount of CO2 we can have in the atmosphere according to scientists (from the 350.org site). Take a look here What is 350 - animation
I got seriously afraid that this whole effort is akin to how my husband views our budget:
"Honey, it's not the $15 we spent on McDonalds that's the problem - it's the big things."
Ok, I may have ahem...underestimated the spending on those particular food items, but the point is the same. Can I, as a person, really make a change in the overall prognosis for Earth? Are the small changes I am making good and beneficial, but at the end of the day not significant enough, because it is the bigger fish (whole industries, companies, governments), that would truly make an impact?
I was listening to a recent podcast on NPR Science Friday of an interview with Bill McKibben - the founder of 350.org and one of the first persons ever to write (a book) about global warming. The key idea I took away from this interview was that, the reason why you and me matter, is because we are the small fish that will make the big fish go where we want them to. Without the support and urging and political action of every one of us, there is little political will to take action urgently. Action which has to occur at the government level. That is why we are important.
Ok, so I feel better about that. I was pleased to see that my son's daycare (he goes 2 times/week), switched some lights off for Earth Day (which I ignorantly switched back on again), but that is more awareness than I saw last year.
The question is, will it be enough, in time?
p.s.
350 parts per million, the safe upper limit of the amount of CO2 we can have in the atmosphere according to scientists (from the 350.org site). Take a look here What is 350 - animation
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