Climate Change

I don't really get involved with the debates over this report or that. I know what I see before me when I see the fumes from the cars that are tangible in the air. I hear the noise from the high voltage transmission lines for the electrical grid. And I feel the heat from so much asphalt for roads and parking lots. I wonder if we will set our atmosphere on fire. I disagree with the way our American government supports the automobile makers yet won't subsidize solar energy - with solar parking lots at select, semi-permanent locations such as churches, schools, large malls (of which we Americans have plenty) we no longer need the high voltage lines (to me they are SO dangerous! I mean, gesh, we've already proved that living near them causes cancer, etc, yet they just seem to be getting bigger with more volts). Solar parking lots also provide an infrastructure for charging electric vehicles - at a time that is plausible and won't really affect the power supply on the grid (everyone is so worried about everybody charging up their EVs at night - brownouts, etc, well just charge them at work while the sun's shining!). Funny how the simplest solutions that provide the most positive outcomes (community-sustained and secure electricity, jobs, infrastructure for a much-needed change in our transportation system) get buried - and by whom? Profit-mongers (for lack of a kinder term). I was demonstrating at a sustainability conference at our state's capital about a year and a half ago, just showing my positive, glowing support for the cause, and one lady flat out told me, "I don't care how they do business" (talking about Duke Energy and the coal plants they were discussing) "as long as they get me my money." Whatever gives these companies the most profit is how they do business. You see it all over the planet now. At times I am so ashamed to be an American - and this new president says, "We won't apologize for our lifestyle." Over-consumption and grandiosity is not why our forefathers founded this country, and it’s not a lifestyle to which I subscribe. I am just grateful that there are many small movements that are gathering force within the communities of our nation. Community spirit is reborn and there are groups working together making lifestyle changes within the community. It is so inspirational, now, to walk about the streets, smiling at neighbors, playing board games at the coffeehouse, or just kicking back being comfortable amongst friends - much like some parts of Europe I visited when stationed in England back in the 1980s. Refreshing, it is. If I've somewhat lost hope in America as a nation, at least it is reborn within the people themselves - those of us who love life and live keeping thoughts of stewardship and sustainability in mind - and just be. Let's hope that we make that necessary climate shift within the time left to us to change the predicted outcome of this global crisis.