Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Past the tipping point? {LINK}


This blog started out, way back, as a commentary on the changing environment of the world I live in, mainly the impact of global warming. I slid into other musings and meanderings over the years but today I was brought up short with the above. I also get the feeling that most of us are not being kept abreast of the truly astounding changes in the North. A friend who goes to Greenland on work assignments every couple of months tells me that the ice is just about gone in that fair land and that now the country is being massively mined for diamonds and gold now that these minerals are accessible for the first time, and all the big corporations have moved in.

We are all the Neros, fiddling away while the planet burns up. I remember reading Sci-Fi years and years ago and all of this was foretold, not the warming per se but the complete and utter disregard for the disintegration around us by the planet's governments and citizens. All fiddling away at Walmart and tooling down the great highways in our SUVS while the airconditioning in our homes creaks out its last gasp of energy.

I know we are all saturated with reports, I know we all feel helpless though doing our best to combat it on a minescule individual level. Where are the protests on the streets?

The results of this great meltdown will be horrific and panic will ensue very rapidly when none of our services will be able to keep up with the health needs (new diseases), water depletion, flooding, massive food shortages, etc.

Now what have I done to combat this personally ( share yours and make me feel better!)


I've signed enough protests (Stop Big Corp running our governments!)
and recycling, reducing, reusing goes without saying.
I turn out lights,
I have a tiny car and drive it hardly ever,
I stopped flying (in a plane!),
I am converting my current home to off the grid,
I don't use plastic grocery bags,
I don't buy plastic containers anymore
I stopped using paper towels,
I bought organic seeds for planting a vegetable garden next year
I dug a well
I started a wood lot and harvest trees for winter heating
I try and shop for stuff grown within 100 miles of where I live (a bit of a challenge in a small outport in Newfoundland!) but this quest found me yesterday buying from a bakery that makes scrumptious pies out of local apples, Yay!
I use rechargeable batteries
I do not buy Big Box ever
I buy second hand just about everything
I bought a hand-cranked washing machine (yes, they can be found and yes it is fun!)
I make all my own gifts, all my own celebratory cards


And there's more but they don't come to mind at the moment.

Maybe there's nothing any of us can do to stop this rapid descent into End of Days.

Maybe all we can do is live in the moment and do our own little bit.

13 comments:

  1. Yes I'd read about the Arctic and the record temperatures of 22C. Sobering. Of course you've read my own opinions on global warming, I wish the governments would take more of a lead since they can do a lot more than well-meaning individuals. Ashamed to say Jenny and I do a lot less than you do but we try to keep doing more. We have a similar sourcing problem in NI since so much stuff is shipped in from elsewhere, particularly China. At least as vegetarians we're using a lot fewer resources than meat-eaters.

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  2. Good point on vegetarian living, Nick. I was a veggie for years but did not feel 'well' and started on fish about 5 years ago which saw an immediate upsurge in my energy level, which is normally high anyway. I try and only eat 'happy' meat, if you know what I mean. Organic or locally caught. The thought of ingesting pain disturbs me greatly. The China virus is everywhere, second-hand goods can resolve this. But not always. It appalls me to think of the distance a spoon has to travel to reach my kitchen....we are so out of touch.

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  3. You are far more committed and talented than I am, WWW. If I made everyone's gifts they would take it as a major snub. I'm just not handy or crafty.

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  4. It is true that all we can do is live in the moment and do our own little bit. I am guilty of not doing as much as what I could potentially do. I try to recycle as much as I can and not use unnecessary power, leaving it on etc. I like buying second hand, use rechargable batteries, I don't have a car, I used to have a herb/vegetable garden in Sydney but here not yet, I try to support local producers by shopping from fresh food market or just reading the labels. There is much more I am sure. I would love to live in an eco-house and fully do the sustainable living from heating systems to plants and vegetables, I don't have the money to, at the moment. What bothers me most though, all of us combined doing our little bits are no match to the huge corporations doing the wrong thing by gaia.

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  5. PS: You are an amazing woman and wonderful human-being, and this I think whilst not knowing you in person.

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  6. Enjoyed the story about yr granny on WITN and decided to visit.

    Lovely blog. I have only one complaint. You are not old. Why do you feel old? We're all going to live to 100 now! And if not I shall live as if I was going to. I'm 51 and back at school, enjoying being off the treadmill.

    Another who spread the grey wing... 25 years ago.

    Beannacht!

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  7. Medbh:
    Secondhand works well too. And it becomes a fun thing to do if there is gift exchanging involved. Books particularly are great. Picked up at goodwill for $1 and wrapped in brown paper or a tea towel, etc. the sky is the limit for the imagination. Even planting a seed in a pot.....

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  8. Gaye:
    It sounds like you are doing your bit and I agree it is the big corps that are doing the damage but we are the ones who are sustaining them either by shopping there or investing in their stocks.
    And thanks for your compliment **blush**.
    As the saying goes: I wish I was the person my dog thinks I am.....

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  9. Welcome EW and thanks for the compliment:
    I must visit you next!
    I know I'm not old and I certainly do not feel it - whatever **it** is!!
    But to a young person my face tells a different story even though not many wrinkles, thanks to the gene pool I luckily inherited.
    Congrats on your endeavours, you are living an interesting life!

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  10. I wish I was the person my dog thinks I am. Brilliant!

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  11. Last night I was watching Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. Although I am not sure how much of it is done for political reasons, I was impressed by the information he put together and the layman's terms explanation with the charts and diagrams and actual numbers. And I am not convinced that there is no point in bringing another child to this world, so I won't have one. I also read another well written article about the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a link from Bocktherobber, and I am even more depressed about the issue. Hmm. I think the little bits we do will not be nearly enough to slow down the process let alone stop it.

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  12. As i write, Gaye, there is an unheard of heatwave in Toronto (in mid-October!) and on CBC Radio 1 the other night there were interviews with researchers in Siberia who are concerned about the melting perma-frost and the unbelievable quantities of methane being released into the atmosphere compounding the crisis even further.
    I saw Al Gore's doc.
    I am sure all these uber-wealthy have provisional plans made for their own security as the rest of us melt away with the planet....

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  13. Nick:
    Thanks, wish I could claim it as an original but read it somewhere years ago :>)
    XO
    WWW

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