You Cannot Expect To See Change Without Any Effort.
In past articles, I have written about how changing a light bulb won’t fix everything but also that the little things do matter when added one on top of the other. But one thing I have never said was that this was going to be easy; there is no way for the change you want to see happen in the world without putting in any effort at all. Changing the way that we treat the planet (and each other, for that matter) is going to take a huge shift in the mindset of the average person. For far too long we have treated our rivers and oceans like a toxic escape route, our air like our own non-functioning carbon sequestration plant, and fellow humans like they were our our enemies based only on the fact that they were from another place. For too long we have squandered our natural resources, abused our non-natural ones, and let things slide that should have been taken care of long ago. And now, all of our neglect is coming home to roost and it’s time for everyone to get to work. After all, I don’t want my great grandchildren to have to live in a place that I had a hand in ruining, and I am sure you don’t either.
You might not have noticed the changes yet; most of us haven’t. Sure, we see bigger storms during hurricane season or maybe even longer, drier summers in the Southwest. But as soon as they are gone, we go back to feeling safe and being complacent – it’s human nature to act that way; it’s a safety mechanism. In fact, some places are having a really frigid winter and doubting that climate change is even real. That’s the key though – it’s climate change, which does not necessarily lead to warm, balmy winters. In fact, winters could be getting worse and showing up in places that don’t normally get winter! Scientists are really the only ones seeing and tracking the changes, and it’s only because of them that we know that anything is really askew with our world. And this is the reason that the real effort and changes need to be implemented and executed as soon as possible, before it gets too late and we reach some sort of a tipping point that we might not be able to recover from. Do I know where or when that is? Nope. But I also don’t want to find out.
Yes, it is going to take more than just a few souls changing a light bulb in their house in order to make an impact; no one said that was all it was going to take. It is going to take everyone changing every light bulb. It’s going to take everyone making informed decisions about Energy Star related appliances for their home. It’s going to take everyone making their voice heard on issues ranging from the protection of species all the way to Detroit and our desire for alternative fueled/electric vehicles. It’s going to take voting with your wallet by supporting companies who are working towards the same goal. And it’s going to take work. Lots of it. By everyone from President Obama to Al Gore to local organizers to PTA heads to kids in high school. As I have said before and always end up repeating to naysayers, we are all in this together. You want change? Start by asking everyone around you to put in the work like you do; we are going to need all the help we can get. Every last bit of effort helps the cause and is worth the time put in – Let’s get busy.
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- The 6 Sins Of Greenwashing.
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Thanks for getting this out there.
Environmentalism is about so much. It’s about absolutely everything that impacts our earth and the direct and indirect effect it has on us. The sheer magnitude of it is more than a lot of people can wrap their heads around, so they become narrow sighted in an effort to forget.
But it’s so easy! It’s so easy to do the right thing. It’s so easy to care about the one thing that we need to survive, and when you realize that we have an integral relationship, a personal, one on one relationship with our world, then its easy to fight the good fight.
Keep doing what your doing, keep making a difference.
Adam Shake
Twilight Earth
Thanks Adam, you too!
I like you ‘lets do policy’ approach… The trick as always is how to get results. In short, the answer is in the $$$. The $$ is why the increased california emission standards proposal will fail. I called it. $$$ is why clean coal will still exist for many yesrs to come.
On the other hand if CFL bulbs have a tax rebate… and can be returned for a refund worth half their price, the $$$ works for the environment.
so ether people must stop valuing the $$$ and start valuing damage to the environment, or there must be some clearly appearant reason money wise to use cleaner, more efficient technology.
Another thing all you folks out there can do…
switch your computers power supply to an 80+ efficiency model. (why every computer now a daysdosnt have this standard eludes me…) older models use almost as much power at idle as they use at full power. Aa standard 200 watt power supply can use the same power as two 100 watt light bulbs.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately and reading what others have to say on the matter. I agree that it’s upto the adults to start solving this problem. In fact I wrote about this in my own submission to the Carnival of the Green.
What’s the best place to start? I’m not sure it’s worth agonizing over – it’s better to get started.
Absolutely. If only people would just start, it would make a difference.