It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously. - Peter Ustinov
This is a great quote to remind us about Earth Day, and our responsibility to protect and understand our world and the effects our being has on the universe. To honor Earth Day 2006, am writing in green and declaring to all who do not know: I am a modern greenie, and I'm OK with that.To do my part, as I all think we should, I decided to research global effects that are impacting our nation and Earth. What I found was scary and disturbing. I was quickly sucked into the political universe surrounding this issue, and was as quickly reminded by a dear friend of mine, that this was an unhappy subject with no good answers. Possibly true, but I still want to be educated. This only proves my point that education really is the solution to most problems. I think the problem with that solution is getting the human population excited about being an educated Earthling. Nonetheless here are some comments on a few articles I found in my quest:
from Woods Hole Research Center: A great overview of Global Warming. Below a caption from the Kyoto Protocol.
"At the Second Earth Summit in Rio, it was generally agreed that the responsibility falls upon the developed nations to lead the fight against climate change, as they are largely responsible for the current concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere."
Sure, the problem has developed because of the emissions from developed countries. It's our mess, we should be the ones to lead the combat.
"The original target for emission reductions that was generally accepted in 1992 was that the developed nations should, at a minimum, seek to return to 1990 levels of emissions by the year 2000."
I think a Republican must have been in charge of the word-smithing for this one. "should...seek to return..." Seek, meaning researching, not meaning action or solution composing. Secondly, it is absurd to think that our evolution is able to stop producing the amounts of harmful gases in a decade. And, based on predictions, the emissions we are putting out now will be effecting our children and grandchildren. So what have previous generations done that is effecting us today? These results are not something that was born from this era of humans. Maybe this is where we need to focus our research on and apply the concepts to this modern world.
"Additionally, developed nations should provide financial and technological aid and assistance to the developing nations to produce inventories and work toward more efficient energy use.I have a hard time with this, since if developing countries were paying attention, they would be developing their countries in a way that would aide them in preparing for the long-term effects of global warming locally. Wait- excuse me. If the United States would pay attention to what problems developed countries were having, then they could create empires from developing countries that were capable of handling the the long-term effects."
OK- so I got a political bone out of the way. It could go on, and on, and on...
So for fun, I took a quiz on my ecological footprint. This measures how many acres my living habits use in my lifetime. Here are my results:
CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 2.7
MOBILITY 6.9
SHELTER 2.7
GOODS/SERVICES 6.7
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 19
IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 4.3 PLANETS.
What's yours? Earth Day Footprint Quiz
Well, that isn't exactlypleasantt news. Especially since I recycle about everything that I touch, right down to foil instead of styrofoam containers for leftovers. Who they hell invented styrofoamanywayy?
This article and site, from the National Resources Defense Council, sheds some hope from my homeland in the heartland with biofuels. An amazing concept that gets me super excited for Iowa, and super concerned about the efforts surrounding the gas and oil pipeline in Alaska.
Here's another demonstration how Canada has their shit together, despite the fact that "Canada is busted": Earth Day Canada
For some real fun, head to the Kaboose for games, clip art, songs and coloring pages. Remember Earth Day is everyday!
Other useful sites:
NorthSouthEastWest- global warming in photos from around the world Climate Ark- Climate Change and Global Warming Portal
Open Democracy- Free thinking for a free world
Update: I'm not sure any of these links work, and for that I apologize. However, this page has been nothing but impossible for me, and I have updated it already for the past three days. So I am just going to let this one go and if you really want to check out a link that I have "allegedly" posted, let me know. I'll make sure you get it. Here's to technology. (4/25)
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