My main reason for titling this series as I did is the nifty alliteration of ‘Warming’ and ‘Wednesday.’ I think it should be noted, however, that the most correct terminology for the major environmental shift we’re facing is “Climate Change,” as explained in this post that I found via Bub and Pie. I thought briefly about “Climate Change Kvetch,”* but that had a connotation of complaint without action, definitely not the tone I’m trying to set with these posts.
Since climate change has been on my radar since at least the 1980s (when I first learned of it as global warming), I have long understood that the effects being discussed were not just overall warming, but rather an intensification of many weather patterns. While weather patterns have the ability to change over time, many recently tracked changes—increases in hurricane numbers and strength, permafrost melting, ice shelves breaking—are traceable to human interference in the environment, in my own opinion and that of many people more qualified than I to make such judgments.
*On the other hand, “Climate Forcing Friday” might have worked, but Fridays are particularly busy school days for me.
I also wanted to bring to others’ attention an article that I found over at MSNBC at the beginning of the year. This list of 10 simple actions that will help the environment caught my eye and gave me the last bit of motivation I needed to start this series. Now linking to it here may take some of the wind out of my sails, as some of my small steps over the next 12 months will be repeats or related to the items listed in the article; if you’re looking to make some changes now and don’t want to wait for each of my little suggestions, however, this is a good place to start. Most suggestions include multiple websites where you can find additional information.
3 comments:
Mouse,
Great post. There are some really good ideas in the linked article as well. We try to recycle everything that can be recycled but were lazy. At any time you can usually find 4 empty toilet paper rolls and a couple of collapsed kleenex boxes in our bathroom just waiting to be dragged down to the grey box.
Thank you. I am going to head over to that link and figure out what more we can do.
It's amazing, isn't it - that we worry about abuse and poverty and politics and none of it matters if we have nowhere to live in a couple of decades.
Jen--The funny thing is that I often get down on myself because I'm not as focused on hunger and poverty. I admire so much what you're doing. But I've decided to focus on my own strengths and greatest passion. Maybe if each person picks positive actions based on what that we'll see improvement in everything.
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