Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

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 listeni...

What is the accounting error? I'll get to it. I've been paying attention to what is happening on the climate change scene, on and off over the last few weeks.  Imagine my dismay when I read that the laws passed on limiting carbon emissions, omitted or viewed biofuel emissions incorrectly. Essentially, carbon emissions from smoke stacks count, but not carbon released from burning biofuels (e.g. a tree, or from a car using ethanol as fuel).  The article makes a reference to this gross mistake as an "accounting error", it has the self-explanatory title of Scientists: Biofuel Laws May Harm Environment . Nice.  According to the article, this is how the laws in Europe and in the Kyoto treaty are written.  You've got to be kidding me!! And scientists have only realized this  now??!!  But what does that have to do with my nieces in Trinidad?  Or the roadside vendor who pulled his children out of school so they could beg for money from passing motorists? No...

This is my post for Blog Action Day . This is an annual event where bloggers everywhere in the world post about the same issue on the same day to spark discussion around an issue of global importance. This is part of a conversation I had with my 8-year old. Mama : Do you know what climate change means? Lucas : I think it means when it is like 90F and it is hot.   And the change? It's when in the daytime it might be 90F and sunny and hot, and then you go inside for dinner and then right after dinner and it might have dropped to 70F Well, yes it is that in a way.  That describes what is happening in your area, but when people use the term "climate change" they really mean something more global, like affecting climate around the world Have you heard of the team "global warming"? What global warming is that it is made up of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and when they burn stuff the smoke releases CO2 and it's like a blanket covering the earth and if it k...