My wife likes the Earth. She wants to save it. I like it too, but I don't spend nearly the time or effort that she does. That's why when she told me about 350.org, I gave her my customary response: I nodded and smiled. I am, after all, a pretty clever guy and I know all about "parts per million" and carbon dioxide. It's a fraction problem. It's a poison problem. No matter how you slice it, it's a problem. My initial shrug didn't seem to work as well when I started to consider the reality.
We all know that there has been and always will be carbon in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, we have more than we can use right now. This is that "greenhouse effect" that Al Gore wanted to tell us all about with his "Internet." Instead, we used his invention to look up recipes and stalk old girlfriends. Now I'm using that power to let you know that three hundred and fifty parts of carbon dioxide per million in our atmosphere is the safe edge of scary. We are currently past that. The count is now three hundred and ninety-two. That creaking sound you hear is the Greenland ice sheet melting.
It doesn't take a lot of imagination to imagine life without ice. Or breathable air. We saw that in countless science fiction movies from the 1970's starring Charlton Heston. They didn't end well, but this one can. It means giving some things up, and taking new things on. It means thinking about what's going to happen next instead of waiting for it to happen to us. It doesn't require a monumental sacrifice from any one person, but it will mean change. Change is hard. Coincidentally, so is breathing after that three hundred and fifty. Solar energy, conservation, and simply thinking before you buy something is an easy enough start. Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
It's like I tell the kids who are sitting in the Principal's office: "Make better choices." Or wait for Al Gore to invent the climate-fixing machine.
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