Getting Back to Basics

It doesn’t matter whether you believe climate change is man-made or natural. It doesn’t even matter if you think the whole climate change/global warming issue is a hoax. There is evidence from every part of the world that serious changes are taking place, much of it in places that we never hear about. From the Himalayas, where unprecedented melting of the snow pack has been reported for well over a decade by the native inhabitants, to the disappearance of plant species at Walden Pond, something is happening that has nothing to do with politics or conspiracies.

Plants are on the move to more favorable areas as their environment becomes too hot or dry. Flowers are blooming earlier in response to unusual warmth. Animals are changing their mating and migration patterns. Species of amphibians are in danger of extinction from diseases that are flourishing with the change of climate. These are not just single events, but trends that are being carefully tracked over years and decades.

In hundreds of ways, environmental disaster is creeping in on us in the background, and sooner or later the financial concerns and environmental concerns will merge. The problems that the average person is dealing with on a daily basis already have more to do with the environment than with the financial meltdown. The rising prices of food and other commodities are a function of the costs of energy (transportation), of drought, and of climate shifts that are decimating growing areas and species.

Small changes taking place over time add up. We have to think beyond whether global change is real or whether we can stop it by our actions. Garbage is garbage, whether it’s in landfills, floating in the ocean, or contaminating our food and air, or high in the atmosphere. We each contribute to it, and we can each reduce the accumulation and its impact on our lives and on the earth.

Polar bears have become a recognizable symbol of climate change, but polar bears don’t live in our backyards, and don’t really convey the message that we are also being affected by climate change. Polar bears are merely a symptom; for the causes, we need to look in our own backyards.

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