Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

One of the biggest issues plaguing the political forefront right now is the matter of how our actions have and are effecting the climate. When we first began to mine coal and oil to run engines and create the electricity we now require, no one knew what the consequences would be fifty years down the road. Unfortunately, they weren't good and now the globe is in a bit of a crisis.

While I don't think it's as serious as some people claim, due to the trends of El Nino and La Nina, I do believe that there is a problem, and that we all need to do our little bit to make some changes happen. Some will have to be done at a government level, and others have to be done on a personal level.

The biggest one though is our dependency, in the United States, on oil. More specifically, the fact that our cars run on gasoline that is refined from oil. Right now we are entirely dependent on this product in order to gain transportation anywhere, be it by car or bus, and we are wasting it. The technology and ability to create a more-efficient carburetor and engine is out there, but the US does not use it. I fully believe this is due to the greed of the oil companies, look at how high gas prices went after all! And unfortunately for we, the people, the government has their fingers dipped into oil stocks and would hate to loose money because the profits dropped. And as such, we don't have gas-efficient cars.

The electric car is a novel idea, but for people like myself who live out in the mountains, they're not as wonderful as everyone thinks. It takes a lot more for cars to get up our hills, and we don't have cute little short distances to drive. Everything is generally thirty or more minutes from where we live, and there isn't any public transportation to take you there. So until an electric car is efficient enough to go 300-500 miles a day on one charge, they probably won't be a viable option for some of us.

Another issue with the electric car is the safety of our rescue squads who may have to cut us out of the vehicle in the event of an accident. There needs to be some sort of way to wire it so that those fine young men and women won't get electrocuted trying to save our lives.

Second largest issue with the US, is the fact that we have not signed the Kyoto Agreement. Doing so would put us under the same standards that many other countries have accepted, and would help us to do our part in cleaning up the environment.

On a more individual level, there are many small things that can be done that will contribute best when many are doing it.

If everyone used energy-efficient products it would help cut down on the consumption of electricity, and thus less coal would be burned. It'll also help if people learn how to most efficiently place lights and windows in their homes, so that it takes less energy to light a room. Similarly, turning lights off in rooms you aren't using will save on energy consumption as well.

Recycling what we can will cut back on the removal of trees and other natural resources to make more. Trees are vital to our environment since they scrub the carbon dioxide out of the air we breathe.

Carpooling when possible will cut down on our emissions output, and it will save us all a lot of money!

Businesses that are able to go paperless should, and save on the amount of paper products used each year.

Participation in Earth Hour, where you use no electricity for just one hour, is another really great way to help the environment. It's amazing just how much you can do by going without electricity for one hour of the year!

I think the biggest reason why people don't do things like this though, is because they're always asking "why?", and because they don't think that there is anything wrong with the environment.

What everyone has to realize is that the effects are slow to appear. However, the Earth's attempts to remedy itself aren't hard to see. Sars, Katrina, tsunamis, earth quakes, bird flu, swine flu--you name a pandemic or national disaster, and I'll bet you anything it was created by the earth to try and get rid of the problem it's having.

If we don't learn to take care of what we have, there won't be anything left to take care of tomorrow.

We already have a hole in the ozone layer, shrinking polar caps, and screwed up seasons. What more do we have to see before we start to realize that there is a problem?

Something that fascinates me though, is the fact that our polar caps are shrinking, and sea levels are rising. Looking at that, and then looking at mythology from around the world, it makes me wonder if all the end of the world myths were right--we're going to loose everything to a great flood.

I certainly hope not, and that's why I'm trying to do my part to help keep my Earth clean. Are you?

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change