Here's what you can do to help

The Climate Crisis Can Be Solved

- Reduce your carbon emissions...to zero.

- Buy energy efficient appliances and lightbulbs.

- Change your thermostat (and use clock thermostats) to reduce
energy for heating and cooling.

- Weatherize your house, increase insulation, get an energy audit.

- Recycle.

- If you can buy a hybrid car.

- When you can, walk or ride a bycicly.

- Where you can, use lightrail and mass transit.

- Tell your parents not to ruin the world that you will live in.

- If you are a parent, join with your children to save the world they
will live in.

- Switch to renewable sources of energy.

- Call your power company to see if they offer green energy. If they don't, ask them why not.

- Vote for leaders who pledge to save this crisis. Write to congress...if they don't listen, run for congress.

- Plant trees....lots of trees.

- Speak up in your community.

- Call radio shows and write newspapers.

- Insist that America freeze CO2 emissions and join international efforts to stop global warming.

- Reduce our dependance on foreign oil, help farmers grow alcohol fuels.

- Raise fuel economy standards, require lower emissions from automobiles.

- If you believe in prayer, pray that people will find the strength to change.

- In the words of the old African proverb...when you pray move your feet.

Encourage everyone you know to watch the movie "An Inconvenient Truth". Learn as much as you can about the climate crisis. Then put your knowledge into action.

(Taken from the credits of the movie.)

An Inconvenient Truth

The headline says it all, but we can no longer pretend it isn't happening. Pulling the covers over our heads doesn't make the problem go away. What problem? It's not MY problem. What can I do about this Global Warming thing anyway? Well, it is time we wake up and face the facts.

I was watching the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" yesterday afternoon and quite frankly it shook me up a bit. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you watch it. It is very powerful and most likely will change your mind. I had heard about "Global Warming" and the "Greenhouse Effect" and the "Hole in the Ozone Layer" but up until now it really hadn't sunk in. I didn't realize how bad it really was. It was distant. It didn't really concern me (that much) or so I thought. What could I as an individual do about it anyway?

Yes, I can recycle, I've done that in Germany 30 years ago. Most of the soda pop, beer, etc. came in glass bottles then and when they were empty we brought them back to the store for a refund. Plastic was a concern back then as well although it had more to do with the "Oil Crisis" than Global Warming. Most grocery stores charged 10 pennies for a plastic bag and people just got accustomed to bring their own bags or baskets from home. I will ask for "paper" from now on when I go shopping at the supermarket, and yes, I will recycle that paper. I have to stop being so wasteful. It is not to late. If we all help together as a global community and we all do our part, we will have a beautiful planet to live on for many generations to come.

Have you ever stopped and thought why we are having more and more natural disasters of enormous dimensions. If nothing at all, Katrina should have given us something to think about. How many more Katrinas do we need to finally wake up and do something. If we just keep ignoring what's going on around us then we may need to redraw the global map in less than 50 years...Because...Parts of China and Florida will be under water. So will be the Netherlands, parts of California and Manhattan. If you think a couple of million refugees in Africa and other places are a problem right now, then just wait until hundreds of millions of people are going to be displaced by natural disasters and flooding 20, 30, 50 years from now.

There's no need for that if we all get together and everyone does their part to help. Someone once said:

"We don't own the earth. We just borrow it from our children and our children's children."

I'm Not A Tree Hugger...

...but I do care about our environment. Within the past few months, pictures in my mind that I had almost forgotten about were brought back to me very vividly. I grew up in one of the most beautiful areas in Germany, the "Spessart/Odenwald" region which is the area between Wuerzburg and Frankfurt. Thick green forests, rolling hills and meadows with beautiful wildflowers. I have very fond memories and get homesick just thinking about it.

I loved taking a drive with friends on the small winding roads through the Spessart on Sunday afternoons, stopping at roadside cafes for a cup of coffee and a piece of cheese cake. Everything seemed to still be alright there, although signs of trees damaged by pollution were already emerging. It wasn't as plain to see though as along the stretches of autobahn between Frankfurt and Duesseldorf which I travelled more frequently visiting family. Dead trees were lining the side of the road. I remember watching a documentary about it on TV. Has it gotten any better? I don't think so, although I haven't been back to Germany in 13 years.

I live in Denver, Colorado now and pollution is a problem here as well. There are days when you can't see the mountains because of all the smog. It's sad! Time to wake up and start doing something about this instead of waiting for someone else to do something. One person can make a difference.

I'm planing on doing my part.