Thursday, September 18, 2008

If you are the worrying type, you have a lot on your plate these days. There are more crisis in the world each day. The one that worries me a lot is global warming.

I saw Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth". By the end of the movie, I was convinced...mostly because I noticed weather changes locally. If I shovel snow once a winter, that is all I shovel. It wasn't like that When I moved to Connecticut. We had blizzards that closed down the schools.

We've have summers so hot that I can't do much of anything during the dog days. By the time it cools off a little and I have some energy , my garden has become a field of weeds. It takes all of the fall season to get it right again. I see that garden zones are creeping northwards. I am currently in a 6A climate zone. Bet I'll be in a 7 climate zone soon. Just wait a little bit to see.

The newspaper says that the fish in long island sound are changing. It is too warm for lobster, so they migrate farther north. We have some fish that are local to the Chesapeake Bay area...from much warmer waters to the waters of Long Island Sound. We have an occasional dolphin or whale. That never happened before, or at least I was not aware of it.

Even little butterflies are migrating. I can understand that if the plants they feed on, are on the move, then the caterpillars have to move, too. Perhaps a few are blown off course. Perhaps some starve to death locally. The result will be that if some can survive in a new area, they will. This is something like an accidental migration.

Other factors of change are, of course, pollution. I am developing a bad cough....had it for years. It is getting worse. After doing what the doctor said to do, the cough is still here. My best guess is that there is something in the air that irritates my sinus and lungs....something in car exhaust?

Then, there is the cost of living. Today, I put $40 in the gas tank of my Ranger truck. It did not fill the tank.

I took a trip to Syracuse NY and back. Kept records of gas and tolls. It was about a hundred dollars for that little bitty trip!....not counting motel rooms (rates going up) and meals out (rates going up and up). and...that was an economical trip. The Ranger gets 27 miles per gallon if I drive a steady speed. I remember when $4 filled the gas tank.

I want us to get out of oil dependency because it is causing mid east wars. I want us to get out of oil dependency because it is ruining our natural world. I don't want to live on earth if everyone has cancer and frogs and salamanders grow extra legs and heads. Something is very wrong here. I can't breathe the air any more.

Instead of looking for more sources of oil, like off shore drilling, why isn't it common sense to develop solar and wind energy? Now don't get me started about greedy people who can make a lot of money out of oil. I know that all ready. Let's ignore them and develop solar and wind energy. I am willing to put solar panels on my house if the town doesn't raise my taxes because I "improved" the property.

T. Bone Pickens seems to have a good idea about wind power. If I lived in the mid section of our country, I would put up a windmill. I remember when I was a child, farmers had one that ran a pump to pump water out of the stream into the house. It was a good idea then. It is a good idea now.

At one time, the United States decided that We needed to electrify the entire United States. Wires were strung, Sources of electricity were developed. The grid was developed and now We all have electricity.

Another time, the United States decided to improve our roads. Turnpikes and highways were added to local roads and now one can drive from one coast to the other. Goods can be transported in trucks over land instead of by waterway.

Before that, We decided that trains should be able to travel from coast to coast. It was done. Ditto with planes. and ditto with the Internet.

Our country is a "can do" country. Remember that saying from world war two? "can do"? We found whatever materials We could and used them to solve a problem. We can solve this energy crisis, clean up our planet, and make my cough go away.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Melanie O. said...

I completely agree with you - we are a "can do" nation - it's only a greedy minority that wants to keep us stuck on oil dependency. I hope that I am around long enough to see the change to cleaner and renewable sources of energy.

6:44 AM  
Blogger gardenbug said...

Me too. I look forward to clean air and water...and ground.

5:25 PM  

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