Miracle

I watched Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth" last night. I had planned on watching it immediately when it first came out, and for whatever reason (probably "too busy" or something dumb) I missed it when it was actually in theaters here. So we had it sitting all this time on our Netflix list for the moment it was released on dvd.

Beyond shocking. By the end of the film I was scared to death. All of these predicted changes are going to happen in my lifetime, and looks quite like the planet is doomed, as are we all, if things don't change -- well, yesterday. How likely is that given our current lifestyles of consumption and our current government run by oil men? I've just personally gone through a year of some of the worst weather I've ever endured. And it was nothing compared to say New Orleans last year. Each year is going to get drastically worse. So totally, completely, undeniably scary that I was feeling that sort of numb, shaky feeling I had on September 11 while watching the events of that day. Too overwhelming to take it all in really, but enough to realize how completely out of control it is, how helpless, hopeless, inevitably changed forever.

Obviously the final message is the we DO have the knowledge, tools, science and technology to make a huge change right this very minute and that we must absolutely start this course today. Every one of us. So while I felt utterly overwhelmed and helpless, I tried to fight it and do something. Even if it was just turning down the thermostat and turning off most of the lights in the house. It felt petty and small. We're making a list of what we can change every day to make a difference just here in this little matchbox house. But it needs to be so much more.

I think what struck me the most was that WE, here in America with our air of superiority, are the worst offenders. For some reason I was suffering under the illusion that we were a little ahead with our culture of "green" and recycling. That countries like China or India, with their immense populations and industry were doing more damage and that the fight was to get these other nations to understand the problem. But China and other countries are already producing automobiles that are light years ahead of our big SUVs and even our hybrids. Knowing that the US alone contributes more than 30%? More than entire continents put together? What is our problem? We KNOW this stuff. Why are we still driving Hummers and wasting so many resources? Even here in this so-called little cocoon of "green" type folks here in the Pacific Northwest, we are still not doing nearly enough.

I don't have any answers right now. Only more questions, and renewed commitment to make both my home and my business more ecologically vigilant.