Ann, you starting this thread gave me the push to start a thread I had been thinking of for some time. You can read it in "About the Band - Carbon Offsets."
I loved "An Inconvenient Truth", not just because it sounds the same alarm that I've been sounding for the past 25 years, but because it makes the scientific information easily accessible and understandable to all who see it.
Another reason I liked the movie is that, as evidenced in the posts on this thread and elsewhere on the board when the subject comes up, everyone is realizing that we have all been silent participants in the destruction of the planet. But there is something each and every one of us can do. It doesn't all have to be the same thing. As long as we each do something, we can make a difference.
Last year, I became more conscious of what I could do. I've made a concentrated effort to live as much of a carbon-neutral life as possible:
- In 2005, I switched my electricity supplier to Bullfrog Power (www.bullfrogpower.com): "Bullfrog Power is the first 100% green electricity retailer in Ontario. Clean power is here. It's reliable. Bullfrog Power is the only electricity retailer in Ontario that buys power exclusively from wind and low-impact hydro generators who meet or exceed the federal government's Environmental Choice Program EcoLogo standard for renewable electricity." What does this mean? That I'm not paying for coal and nuclear electrical power. I'm purchasing power from green sources, thus reducing my GHG emissions.
- Last November, I replaced 90% of the bulbs in my house with CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs). The other 10% are lights I hardly ever use.
- I continue to walk/take the TTC to personal and work-related activities
- I buy clothes made in Canada, and if I can, in Toronto (not a lot of fuel used getting it to the store, compared to having it come all the way from China)
- I buy produce from Ontario, even if it costs more than its US counterpart
I looked into geo-thermal power, but alas, it is just not possible where I live (there isn't enough room to dig a hole that deep). We are replacing our car next year with a hybrid model. I will be moving to solar energy in the next 5 years (just can't afford it right now).
All this has made me experience something I hadn't for a while... hope. Hope for the future, hope for the environment, hope for the planet and all the living beings in it.
Who cares what Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla) says ("global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people")? Or Michael Crichton in his book, State of Fear ("global warming is something the environmentalists made up so they could raise more funds")? Or that Dubya won't see "An Inconvenient Truth?"
We know we are right! We will continue on our path. Look at who is behind us: Al Gore, Robert Kennedy Jr, David Suzuki, the folks at NASA. These folks know what they are talking about. Laurie David (without whom Al Gore's presentation would not have been made into a movie), has called the climate crisis the civil rights movement of our time.
I've always believed in civil rights. How about you?
The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.