There are many sustainability issues that are relevant today. This page will focus on a particular topic every month.

April's topic: Global Warming

April 22 is Earth Day, and I can't help but think about the controversy over the theory of global warming. The issue is whether or not global warming is a natural phenomena or a man-made creation. There are also those who believe nothing is happening, but while their heads are burried in the sand, they still agree that the Earth is heating up. Unlike stand-alone events that cause disaster like a tsunami, an earthquake or a volcano eruption, global warming is a multi-variable string of events.

This is a simple debate over cause and effect. If this is a natural phenomena, then global warming is simply the cause of these events—melting ice caps, rising ocean and surface temperatures, rising oceans, more erratic weather systems. On the other hand, if global warming is the effect, that means it's the aftermath of our own doing. The difference between the two lies in the fact that one excuses us while the other commands our attention.

So what I wonder is, if global warming is a natural phenomena, should we be deflecting the issue of responsibility altogether? What would we be giving up exactly? On the other hand, if global warming is man-made, what is at stake here and how much are we willing to sacrifice for our vision or lack thereof?

That just makes me think of chess. If you ever played chess, you know that if your queen is in danger, you don't simply give her up. Most inevitably you need to strategize a sacrifice in order to save her, you have to weight the pros and cons of what you have at stake. All I know is that, if global warming is a human creation, and therefore the effect of our life choices, it makes sense to strategize throughout the day in order to lower the impact of our decisions on Mother Earth. We have nothing to lose when we throw that cardboard in the recycling bin as opposed to the trash. We have nothing to lose when we take the bus or ride our bikes instead of driving. We certainly have nothing to lose when we save energy. There are so many little decisions that we make every day that affect everything else, could we really live with ourselves if we knew we could have done something to save the queen but didn't?

Resources:

www.energystar.gov

www.newdream.org

www.fightglobalwarming.com

www.stopglobalwarming.org

www.coopamerica.org

Previous Green Thoughts:

Green Thoughts March 2006

Green Thoughts February 2006

Green Thoughts January 2006

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