Urgency

Shawn and I watched a documentary last night on climate change. You might have heard of it ~ The 11th Hour (this was Leo DiCaprio's project). If you've been stopping by my blog for any length of time, you know that finding ways to protect our planet is one of my passions...

The movie last night gave me new things to think about, different perspectives. And it also gave me a new sense of urgency. At the same time, I'm filled with a feeling of helplessness because I fear it's too late. That the things that need to be done ~ that we have the resources to do to fix this ~ won't be done in time.

One of the points that I thought was a good one is that this planet, this planet that is sick because of us, is going to survive. We teach our boys to take care of our Earth so that the Earth will take care of us... but the thing is, the Earth will heal itself and regenerate, despite the damage that has been done to it. It's our species (and likely most other species on the earth) that is going to be extinct. Extinct!! Not just adapting ~ moving to new cities as the water levels rise and Florida disappears under the ocean... buying more air conditioners to combat summer heat waves... moving ski resorts further north as the snow levels decrease.

At first, yes, we'll adapt. But in the end, we're committing suicide. We're murdering our children's children. I just don't know how we can look away and not do anything. Not even try.

Some people think that climate change, global warming, is a belief ~ like a religion. But in reality, it's an undeniable truth that our climate is changing. Whether or not we are responsible for 100% of that is still being argued.

I don't think there's time to argue. The things that need to happen to turn this around need to start happening now. Yesterday even.

Unfortunately, I think the things that we do in our family... which is only a drop in the bucket of what we should be doing... are not enough. Even if every single person in the United States was doing every single possible thing they could do to reduce their carbon footprint, it still wouldn't be enough. We need help from our corporations and our government. But the corporations seem to have one motive ~ money. Without a home, what good is money?

And the government that we currently have seems to have one motive ~ war. Or power? World domination? Take your pick. But again ~ what good is power or domination if we have no home?

The last point that had me lifting my chin off the floor last night... was that the price of fixing this ~ reforestation, new energy sources, marine life repair (things that will put our country back to work and help the economy to boot) is expensive. I don't remember the exact number but I do remember this ~ it was one third the cost of the U.S.'s military budget. One third.

We need to change our priorities.