Happy With You

I'm not feeling it lately, I gotta be honest. My kids are great. My husband is great. Our life is great. However...

I am sad. I feel overwhelmed by the news lately and what I know to be true--we're all in trouble. When I am only concerned with my own life and our own little struggles and triumphs (which when in the midst of them are not little at all), I am distracted and blissfully unaware. I am exceedingly lucky to not have many problems in my life. For this, I am grateful.

My kids are healthy. They are wonderful. My husband and I are both mostly healthy (seasonal allergies stink--yes, we use a neti pot, and consume local honey--perhaps more probiotics or some acupuncture is in order).

It's just that lately I see what is happening in the world and a pattern is emerging. HAS emerged. I feel doomed by it. WE ARE SCREWED!!!!

I think we have reached the tipping point and have gone right over the edge. I think we are past the tipping point.

This summer:

• a fifth of Pakistan is under water because of crazy flooding
• hundreds have died in China because of mud slides due to flooding
• the Urals in Russia were/are on fire causing terrible pollution in Moscow
• there is drought in numerous places around the world--our own country has broken heat records in many places
• a gigantic (really, monstrous proportion) chunk of ice broke off of a glacier in Greenland--it's the size of four Manhattans or so and is now bobbing in the Atlantic Ocean
  

Now, I know storms come and go. I'm a Chicago girl. I grew up here with extreme weather--hot and muggy summers, cold and snowy winters. I know weather happens here and elsewhere. I know there are monsoons and loads of people get flooded out every year in Bangladesh and other parts of Southeast Asia. But, the points I listed above seem kind of unprecedented. This is a lot to happen all at once.

I am feeling defeated by it all. And, really, I feel like I should turn that feeling of defeat into rage and passion and motivation so that I can join others so we can all DO SOMETHING about it.

It seems so silly to not buy new things and recycle and commute to work on a bike when glaciers all over the world are melting and drought is causing fire which is destroying crops and bees are giving up the ghost and no longer there to pollinate everything. What are our little actions in the face of all of that?

What we need are policy changes worldwide that are serious and comprehensive. We need to get together on this and quit being distracted by buying green and so thinking we have a moral edge on those who don't. Biodegradable umbrellas aren't going to slow climate change--they just aren't! It is silly and self indulgent to think otherwise.

God damn it--we are fucking up here and buying a bunch of greenwashed products isn't going to save endangered species or stop Ames Iowa from being flooded out where they have no drinking water.

10,000 year floods seem to be happening with amazing frequency these days. (Psst. Warmer air holds more water. So, snow storms are bigger too...) If you are not in drought, you are flooded out. Rhymin' timin'!!

So, I'm feeling sad and useless. I'm busy homeschooling my kids, which has its own inherent value, but isn't there some way to act to affect change also? We need it now and in a big way.

I heard this group on NPR, The Bewitched Hands on top of our Heads. Isn't that an interesting name? They are French (but sing a lot in English). Oh, by the way, our French is going tres bien! I don't know how to put in accent marks as I type, but believe me they are there in spirit.

Although I am sad, I am plugging away and helping my kids learn and doing things to contribute and have fun. This song is uplifting and fun, so enjoy it--EVEN IF WE ARE SO SCREWED!!!!

Happy With You

Is Global Warming Real?

Is Global Warming real?

Yes, it is.


Phytoplankton: the starting point of the marine food chain and producer of oxygen. Now, 40% less phytoplankton in oceans than in the 1950's due to Global Warming...

Communication Breakdown...

It's all how you frame things, isn't it? If you can get things in perspective, shift your view, you can really understand things better, don't you think? Sort of a glass half full vs. glass half empty kind of thing.

Here's a blurb at Huffington Post explaining how the BP CEO, Tony Hayward, explains away the largest oil spill (Can I interrupt here and ask that we refer to this in a more accurate way? It is a gusher--much more than BP first reported. Estimates are now from 56,000 to 70,000 barrels of oil a day, not 5,000 as reported by BP, spewing up from the sea bed--not a "spill". Not a "leak". This is an oil geyser that they don't know how to cap. That amount of oil gushing into the Gulf is akin to an Exxon Valdez spill every five days. Wrap your brains around that...).

Back to Tony--he logically puts the whole geyser/gushing-oil-nonstop thing into perspective by comparing it to the size of the ocean. He says it's "relatively tiny"...

That's Fucking Brilliant!!

...and logical. So, don't worry your pretty little heads. Just get on with your lives. Nothing to see here. Move along. Let's stay positive!!

Drill Baby, Drill?

"Drill Baby, Drill" doesn't sound so fun now does it? The oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico is making it's way north where it will soon coat the shore, the plants, the animals. There is reportedly a stench hanging over New Orleans--the smell of the oil coming. Fishermen are scrambling to gather shrimp while they still can.

Here's John Lee Hooker watching the waterfront for his baby. It seems appropriate.



I cover the waterfront
Watchin' the ship go by
I could see everybody's baby
But I couldn't see mine
I could see the ships pullin' in
To the harbor
I could see the people
Meeting their loved one
Shakin' hand
I sat there
So all alone
Coverin' the waterfront

And after a while
All the people
Left the harbor
And headed for their destination
All the ships
Left the harbor
And headed for their next destination
I sat there
Coverin' the waterfront

And after a while
I looked down the ocean
As far as I could see - in the fog
I saw a ship
It headed this way
Comin' out the foam
It must be my baby
Comin' down
And after a while
The ship pulled into the harbor
Rollin' slow
So triple (?)
And my baby
Stepped off board
I was still
Coverin' the waterfront

Said "Johnny,
Our ship had trouble - with the fog
And that's why we're so late
So late
Comin' home
Comin' down"

Earth Day 2010!

The Earth

It's Earth Day! Normally this holiday gets me mad. I think it's a time for people to try and do a couple of things, and then forget about the earth the next day--it seems far more symbolic than real to me. On the other hand, maybe it gets people thinking. That's always a good thing.

Food, Inc. was on PBS last night and I watched it. Wow. If you don't already buy any food directly from a farmer, look around to see if it's possible in your area. The more people who are both buying real, untainted food (no GMOs or pesticides or herbicides or synthetic fertilizers), and supporting small family farms or CSAs (Consumer Supported Agricuture--co-ops of a sort) the more the corporate hold of our food supply starts to crumble a little. That's also always a good thing.

To celebrate today, I am going to go out and buy the latest and best of all of the Green products I can find!

No, I'm not. Joking!!

People keep forgetting, "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" We mostly have a hold on the recycle bit, but reusing things (hand me downs, garage sale and thrift store finds), and reducing in the first place seems to elude a lot of us.

If you need to replace something, see if you can get it used. If you can't then buy green. Buying green to replace perfectly usable things you have doesn't really help anyone or anything--except the Green manufacturers. That's OK except stuff still ends up in the landfills, doesn't it?

Go do something gentle for the earth today--even if it's as small a gesture as not buying something. Just skip it. You'll be OK, really.

Then, think about doing something tomorrow, and maybe all week. If you survive that, try it for a month. You may surprise yourself at your ability to forego stuff you don't need any way.

Try it and see how strong you are. You are woman!! (Or man, depending...)

The Positive Side of Global Warming!!

When you attempt to scale Mt. Everest, you need to bring a lot of stuff: tents, sleeping bags, food, ropes, pick axes, clothes, and perhaps most importantly, oxygen tanks. The air is so thin, at some point it contains a third of the oxygen of lower altitudes. A climber can only survive for up to three days in such conditions. Many have not survived and have left their bodies behind in addition to all sorts of litter--tons of it.

Mt. Everest is a holy place for the Nepalese people and some of the Sherpas who guide climbers up to the topmost peak are able to now clean up the mountain top because the snow melt has allowed them to see the garbage to clear it.

Enough snow is now gone, it is worth it to climb up and retrieve tons of litter and several bodies of dead climbers.

So, there's an upside to global warming!!