Sometimes it is not clear what we live for - is it for the latest new brand of apparel, a new car, more money, prestige, that publication that would give fame, the party we have to make a success of ... the list can go on and on, everyone knows. One has little time to think of our planet, Earth, and it is only an irritant to be reminded we are not just a small scale innocent user - that we can make a difference. But life is just too busy and those who remind us irritating - we have other, more pressing concerns, that new spreadsheet and slide show for the presentation that is so important for the company, now ... oh, well, ok, later we will do a speech, maybe even a lunch for this global warming or whatever.
It takes very little, if persistently done by a large number of people adding up to large savings and helping ecology. And just as a hint - often personal economy is what helps global ecology. There is no need or reason to feel embarrassed or shy about it - it is about everyone's future, about the future of humanity and of our home, the Earth we live on. And there is no option in sight.
Something so small as switching off lights and appliances not in use at the moment, switching to CFL lights, avoiding using AC by using other means to cool in summer (look at the next blog entry), using a smaller and more fuel efficient vehicle or even changing to public transport, buying local produce and holidaying closer to home to avoid the huge fuel spent on transport, all of these can help a lot - you begin now, and soon others catch up. Just give it a try (and if necessary have an attitude about it - you are doing good after all).
We did see this - we bought and used CFL lights extensively and exclusively in every home we lived in in the last decade and more, and we began as soon as they were in the market; then, they were expensive too, which today they are not quite so much; soon others caught up, family and relatives, and now we see them everywhere, public places, hotels. It is considered smarter.
On another tack, for a similar phenomena - we asked our driver to stop honking (a way of life here) and amidst all the surrounding noise, we insisted on it. To our surprise in so little as less than a decade the cacophony is reduced considerably, and amidst the drove of surrounding vehicles in traffic (very thick crowd here with no one believing in lanes) few now honk, even fewer go with the ear-splitting, heart-attack producing, brain damaging loud stereo sounds! It has been a completely unexpected, very pleasant surprise. It has become a little more pleasant to go for a drive, though other bad habits are not so easy to discourage in others. Everyone still tries to take every inch available on the road and lane markings are just decorations for most drivers.
Still - that was a digression - the point is it is easy to forget what we all live for, what we work hard for - and in a word most people would agree it is for the future, (few could bear to live if told future ends tomorrow, even personally) only most think of it as one's own future, or at most the future of those who one cares for. The two are not so different and neither is the future of the earth separate from any of it. Trouble is few believe that future of the planet is really in jeopardy, much less that of the humanity. But if one can only really remember what is at stake here - one might not risk the huge disaster - however small the chances one thinks - just for the little pleasures or the little inconveniences (which actually are imaginary) that would help a huge amount.
So take a look. This is the future we all love to bring into the present, that makes us smile, that we live and work for, and we have to leave an Earth that is viable for.
