A Tribute to So-Called Blog Action Day

Hey there all you virtual readers! Today--October 15th, 2009 is Blog Action Day (B.A.D.) where about 11,000 people blog about climate change! Hoooooooray!

(Don't worry, it will still be fun.)

[Too. Much. FUN. Can't stop moving!]

Sometimes those of us living in nice American suburbs start to forget about pollution and the horrible things it does. I had an abrupt reminder about this the other day when I read about Villa Parisi, Brazil (for class, in an article by Ulrich Beck, and then in another by Mary Milliken). In the 80's it was probably the most polluted chemical town in the world.

It started with an oil refinery. Then a steel company... then a fertilizer company... then Fiat, Dow Chemical, and Union Carbide. Pollution was everywhere. It became so bad, it broke the emission meter in 1977. The whole town smelled, the water was disgusting, children developed chronic asthma, bronchitis, diseases of the nose and throat, and skin rashes. Mudslides came as chemicals eroded the nearby mountains.

[greetings from Villa Parisi]

In the 80's, a bunch of babies in the town were born without brains. Doesn't that kind of make you sick? (Me too.)

FINALLY, in 1983 the government cracked down. Sort of. They didn't fine some of the big companies that much.

As of 2000, people living there were still six times more likely to have bladder cancer, four times more likely to have brain or nervous system cancer, and at least twice as likely for most other types.

I wonder if anything I've bought was made in those factories.

That's an extreme case, but GUESS WHAT, pollution from third world countries is carried over to us. And global warming affects the climate all around the world! Global warming doesn't only mean it will get a little warmer in the summers, it means weather will become more extreme, creating more deserts (less farmland), and worse storms (cough, cough, Katrina).

The pretty pine tree forests of northern Minnesota are slowly retreating north.
Forest fires are becoming more likely.
Floods are increasing around the world as sea levels rise.
The oceans are becoming more acidic and less oxygenated, killing marine life.

Plus, if you go to Mount Nebo, where Moses saw the "promised land," you can't see it anymore.

[P.L. says, "pssst, right here, behind the smog"]

All right, I think I've convinced you after this short rant. We are strangling our planet.

I'm sure you know most of the typical "eco-friendly" tips by now... pretty much all of them reduce or avoid carbon dioxide emissions. Here are a few I'm not doing yet, that we should all consider:

• Instead of choosing the cheapest thing, choose the one with the least plastic packaging and/or the one that is local (farmers' market, anyone?) and/or the one that is organic (yay, no pesticides!)
  
• Turn off your car while waiting to pick someone up.
• Insulate your water-heater or splurge on a tankless one.
• Eat less meat (animal waste gives off methane, which is about 3 times as bad as CO2).

Haven't we all learned something here?
If you want to read more blogs about Global Warming, go to blogactionday.org.

Thanks for reading my ka-ray-zay environmental blog-rama!! (I'd say a longie but a goodie.)

Christie

p.s. KNEW IT!!!

[green leaves + empty branches = LAME fall]