So Al Gore's telling us how WE are destroying the planet, while his big ol' homestead in Tennessee is sucking the power grid for all it's worth. John Travolta is telling us what bad caretakers of the planet WE are, but only when he takes a break from flying one of his FIVE JETS all over said planet. Don't get me started.
Instead of a diatribe on the hypocrisy of it all, I'll comment on a nice article in last week's Time. It was a list of 51 things we can do--some big, some small, some beyond the average person's control--but it was kind of neat to read some ideas. I'm still not totally convinced that global warming is as bad as "they" say. Yes, I believe it's a problem, but I also believe there are cycles, and that may be part of the equation. However, many of these things are simply a matter of common sense, and good stewardship of the land and environment. [Please note that I am not a rabid treehugger. I'm just an average gal who was raised to respect nature and the environment. It's the right thing to do, and my parents taught me that at a very young age.]
First of all, there were a few things on the list that we won't be doing:
* Ride the bus. We live out in the boonies, and public transportation doesn't come near our house.
* Move to a highrise. There really aren't any around here, and I like having our house and land.
* Become vegetarians. Ain't gonna happen. We're carnivores. As some of us were discussing at work the other day, the only thing better than beef is beef wrapped in bacon.
* Plant a live bamboo fence. Time recommends it as a way to remove gases from the air. But it is not a native plant, and I'm against planting large amounts of non-native plants.
* Carpool. Again, out in the boonies.
* Stop planting trees. Time writes that trees in temperate zones (most of the U.S.) actually create more warming, offsetting the benefits of releasing oxygen. However, at our house, the many trees provide plenty of shade, enabling us to leave the air conditioning off most of the time (more about A/C later). They also provide vital habitat for the birds and other wildlife. They're part of our ecology, too, and I think it's important that they be protected.
Okay, that's all the stuff we won't be doing, and it's later than I expected. I'll continue soon with the things we are or will be doing. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many we already practice!
No comments:
Post a Comment