Tag Archives: change

Australia is Burning and I Hope You Feel Bad

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You did this. I did this. We all did this. Every single person reading this post burned more carbon than they should have, which warmed the atmosphere, causing climate change and creating the fire storm that is engulfing a continent. Every one of us is culpable. Every one of us should feel ashamed. And every one of us needs to make sweeping changes to our lives now.

Do you feel bad?

Good.

Then change your actions.

Firstly, donate to help the people who are suffering.

Next, park your car. If you don’t believe me when I tell you that how we transport ourselves accounts for at minimum thirty percent of our carbon footprint, then go here.

Capture

Screen capture of the average household carbon footprint according to the Cool Climate Calculator (Source https://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/calculator)

It’s the Cool Climate Calculator. It shows how you compare to other households like yours. It is far and away the most comprehensive calculator I’ve found. As a point of reference the accepted global sustainable footprint for an individual is 2 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

 

The carbon footprint calculator was developed by a number of organizations one of them being Berkeley, the California school. Look at the bottom, it has Leo DiCaprio’s name on it. Say what you will about his taste in women, that man is devoted to climate change and bringing awareness to it.

If you want to help understand the ramifications of the crisis and how it came about, watch National Geographic’s “Before the Flood”. It’s narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio and was the catalyst for our family committing to both renewable energy and reducing our carbon footprint.

This is an emergency. Greta Thunberg told us to act like our house was fire. There’s no pretending now- our house is truly on fire.

What are you going to do about it?

Tell me your and your family’s goals to change your habits and lifestyle in the comments.

 

The Reset Button

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(Photo Credit lukeroland.com)

(Photo Credit lukeroland.com)

Most people ignore the button on the right. After all, it’s the “Power” button that turns the game on, and the one that shuts everything down when it’s finished. “Power” is what people use most often.

“Reset” is reserved for those desperate times, near the end of the game, when Mario has come so far but just can’t make it anymore; he’s losing lives because those angry flowers keep pelting him with fire. Worse still, the creatures that look like mushrooms grew legs are falling out of the sky and smushing the poor little plumber. (Full disclosure, it may have been twenty years since I last played any type of Nintendo game.) At those times the tally of points in the corner of the screen is so impressive that you could cry from the exertion of getting your video game character this far. But the flowers keep breathing their hot angry breath and suddenly fish start jumping out of nowhere. There are two options, you can push onward and eventually watch Mario’s little figure drop out of the screen, clutching his hat in distress, or you can end it on your terms, knowing that there will be a next time, another set of flying fish, more angry flowers, but in that game, both you and Mario will come out swinging, so you reach for the “Reset” button.

I pushed “Reset” today, the small switch that makes my life start over. It was nerve wracking, and briefly I wondered whether it was the right decision. But what one needs to remember is; you’re never truly starting over, all those skills and tricks that were learned the first time around, make the following attempts that much easier and faster. However in that moment, when you’ve given up everything that you’ve worked for, before the next game has begun, life can feel like a free fall. Occasionally in Nintendo, and the real world, there are times where nothing more can be gained from following a particular path, even if it is possible to move forward. In that terrifying and exhilarating psychological drop, it’s important to reach for the good things, as you push the button and let the bad road fall away.

But I Like Iced Tea

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When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. Or that’s the idea at least, but other times life starts relentlessly pelting you with lemons until you cry “Oh please stop!”. At which point Life switches fruits and slams you with one Granny Smith after another “How do you like these apples?” Life asks in a menacing way. “I don’t like those apples” you cry helplessly, “I don’t like them at all” So Life rears back and snarls “Then have some more lemons!” And you whimper while Life grinds lemon juice into your cuts and bruises.

Life can be a bit of a dick sometimes. But then again so can I, so really I can’t blame Life that much. However that doesn’t prevent me from crying quietly over my lemon juice marinated wounds.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m at a fork in the road. Generally I only recognize these branching spots after I’ve passed them, getting too caught up in the difficulty of the situation to notice the major change occurring in the scenery of my world. My previous forks were precipitated or possibly occurred while life pelted me with various flora and whatever else it could find.

A large part of me wants to huddle with my hurts and wait for the storm to pass.There’s an ease in that, in closing one’s eyes and holding your breath, willing the storm to pass. It means relinquishing all but a little control, and giving into the currents of life, landing where it drops you. In previous years, I’ve chosen this option.

There’s another way too. To duck your head for a moment, find your bearings, and decide on a route rather than letting the path take you. Choosing this method takes bravery and a certain amount of foolhardiness. After all, even the best of plans fail sometimes.

Regardless, the dividing of roads is cause for reflection. Neither curling in on oneself, nor striking out against the howling winds of change can avoid that outcome.