Its Not All Doom and Gloom

I wanted to send a special shout out and Thanks to Elvia Thompson and Vic Pascoe for having me on their radio show Wednesday night, "Living Green in Annapolis" to discuss the Climate Crisis and how it is affecting the Chesapeake Bay region. Like the three of us discussed off air when it was over, we could have a dozen more shows on the topic.  Now, how do I convince them I deserve to come back?  (Hmmmm...I wonder if cookies would do it? Or maybe a nice Cabernet? I am open for suggestions here, people. Let me know in the comments section.)

You can listen to the show here: http://annapolisgreen.com/radio/index.html

What I didn't intend to do was scare the ba-Gee-sus out of everyone listening. Oops! Tales of impending doom and world-wide catastrophe are certainly not very a warm and fuzzy conversation. It may have seemed like I kept piling on top of bad news with scary stats and frightening trends.  Seemed like it?  Alright, in hindsight that is what I did. My bad. But like the third act of many a movie trilogy (not including Revenge of the Sith, of course) there is a sunny side to the impending apocalypse. We have the ability to prevent such an outcome!

Global Climate Change is a messy situation. There is a lot that is involved and impending doom is part of that message. The good part is that its not too late...if we act now. That is the message that I try to get across on this blog, or on my Facebook page or in other ways (like the other night on the radio).  There is so much dis-information floating around out there. Incomplete sound bites, quotes taken out of context, and cherry-picked data that is used to throw people off and confuse in order to hide the truth. What is that truth? Its simple, really. Global Climate Change is real. It is happening.  And we, the human race, are MAJOR contributors.

You don't have to be a scientist to understand how this works and what road we are currently headed down. All you need is a brain to comprehend the message, a voice so you can help others understand what you have learned and the tenacity to keep pushing forward and ensuring that people can disseminate between what is truth and what is a bunch of hooey. My goal is to help people focus on what is happening and what will happen if we don't change how we do things on this planet today...right now. That has to come first before we can get to the Kumbaya moment, where everyone in the world can join hands and sing under sunny skies and calm, receding waters.

So what is real?  Well, recently Climate Change Deniers went on a rampage, accusing climate scientists that believe Global Warming and Climate Change are real of being paid to say those things. They claimed that these experts were just compensated talking heads, making things up just so they can get paid while they sit back and do no real scientific research. These scientists are part of a supposed world-wide conspiracy to get everyone to stop buying oil and coal in order to power their lives with clean energy with Wind and Solar. Oh the humanity!  Except, most scientists across the world survive on grants, toil away in windowless basement labs and offices that don't have a view of the golf course or ocean. Most of the climate scientists out there are...well...out there, in the field, drilling for ice cores and sampling ocean water. Chasing storms, sweating thru droughts and wading thru floods, enduring record breaking heat and powerful storms to get the best and most accurate information so they can understand what's really happening out there in our changing global climate. They are dirty and smelly and away from their families for long stretches. Not the vision of wealthy intellectual snobs that many deniers would want you to believe, is it?

What really frosts my little red wagon about these deniers throwing around such accusations is that many of these pundits and accusers are being paid or funded by organizations to say this kind of crap. Organizations like the Heartland Institute and the Non-governemental Panel on Climate Change were created and funded to throw the public off; to discourage action because changing from dirty energy to clean would hurt Big Oil and Big Coal where it hurts the most...in their pockets. Who has the most to lose here?

Many get contributions from Oil and Coal companies or industries that rely on fossil fuels in order to survive. I am a business man, so I understand wanting to protect your business model. But like the early 19th Century in the meatpacking district of Chicago, this complete disregard for human beings in order to make the most amount of money possible has to come to an end. Think I'm being dramatic? Well tell me, does it turn your stomach when BP runs a commercial about clean energy and caring about the environment?

This is such a complex issue and I am sick of hearing uninformed people spout off like they know what they are talking about, blathering on about things they don't want to acknowledge or won't try to understand. They are doing us a disservice by throwing their clogs into the gears, slowing down progress and innovation, backing outdated and dirty energy, while the water keeps rising on the other side of the dikes. What kind of future do they think their kids will have, when our resort towns are underwater and a day at the beach is spent in Frederick, Maryland or Allentown, PA?

The point of my rant is that you have a choice. You can learn how the science works, what it means now and what it will lead to in the future; a future that will affect your kids and grandkids and great great grandkids. We can change how we live on this planet to ensure a more stable and healthy environmental future for the coming generations, without sacrificing our way of life. We will have to change how we do somethings, sure. But we don't have to eat gruel and live in caves and stop watching TV. That will become the new reality if we sit around and do nothing. if you think the cold spell last week was tough, try living in a cave without running water, blankets, toilets to flush, cars to drive, guns to fire and a steady source of food. Now that's tough!

There are organizations out there that can help you in your quest for knowledge. The Climate Reality Project is one, which I am a member. If you want to learn more, hop on the web and see what's out there. Thats why God invented Google in the first place! Go to Greenpeace or the World Wildlife Fund. Check out your local area to see what kind of grassroots movements and groups are out there spreading the word and raising awareness.

The world isn't all sunshine and rainbows. There's a dark side to it. No matter what we do, there will always be storms, floods, droughts, famine, plagues and Fox News. But, how much those things continue to occur going forward we do have a say in. The frequency and intensity of these events can be affected by our present day actions. Do we really care if our energy comes from dirty coal burning power plants or from clean wind turbines? Well, if I can still DVR "Game of Thrones" while helping slow carbon emissions to a trickle, what's not to like?  It really can be that simple.

You have a choice. Doing nothing is one, but the ramifications of inaction could lead to, literally, the end of the world as we know it. What would you say to the generation that live 85 years from now, when they ask "You knew the world would go to shit back then and yet you did nothing? Why? How could you not do something?"

Well?  How would you answer that question?

Breaking Down Climate Change On A White Board

I found this video to be illuminating and extremely effective in making the point that Inaction when it comes to Climate Change is by far the worst course of action we can take. Whether you believe in human beings impact on a changing global climate or not, watch this.  Click the link below.

http://www.upworthy.com/one-guy-with-a-marker-just-made-the-global-warming-debate-completely-obsolete-7?c=cr1

On the Radio!

I will be appearing on "Living Green in Annapolis" this Wednesday January 15th at 6pm on WNAV 1430 in Annapolis. Tune in and learn about how Climate Change is effecting our local area and you!

Learn more at Annapolis Green http://annapolisgreen.com/index.html

Here is the link to the WNAV site.  http://wnav.com

Hope you listen in!

The Crying Indian and Litter Today

Does anyone remember this from your childhood? The Keep America Beautiful Ad with the crying Indian? (Not trying to be politically Incorrect; that's the name of the Ad).

    It made such an impression on me when I was a kid.  When I see litter on the side of the road to this day, the image of the man in this video flashes through my mind.  It is a reminder, to me anyway, that we can say America is the greatest country on the planet as much as we want. But we still treat it like a Frat House.

    I have been to a almost a dozen different countries over the past 10 years, and I can say that out of all of them, the USA has more litter and trash blowing around then the rest. It is a stark reminder that so many in this country treat our environment like it is their own personal trash can.  If you don't believe me, the next time you are in the left hand turn lane at a traffic light, look out of your window and notice the mass of cigarette butts piled up along the side of the median.

    I took this picture on the way back from the Outer Banks last week. This was an empty lot about 30 miles South of Norfolk, VA. The picture does not clearly show all of the litter that was actually there that day. Its like this almost everywhere you go in this Great Land of Ours.  We drove from Maryland to Vancouver, BC last Spring, traveling through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington State. On the way back we drove from Oregon through Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia.  By far the cleanest place we saw (no trash or litter blowing around) was British Columbia. 

    I thought after seeing that commercial back in the 70's, that it would have the same effect on everyone else that it did me. We are poisoning our environment with plastics, volatile organic compounds (VOC), chemicals and the like.  It gets into the water, the soil and eventually back into our bodies. It affects water quality, soil quality and air quality. 

    I hate to sound preachy, but why do we think we don't have to pick up after ourselves?  Isn't the United States supposed to be a world leader? Do we really want to be a nation of slobs, tossing around our crap like we still live at home with our parents, hoping that someone else will come take care of it? The rest of the world sees how we use up so many resources and just toss the waste where we stand. What kind of example does that set? 

Time to walk the walk, America. If you really want this country to be the Greatest Country in the World, stop poisoning the very environment that we need to survive and thrive. Ensure a better future for your children. The tipping point is closer then you think.