I am a part of the solution. Are you?

May 26, 2006 in Environment

Several clips from “The Inconvinient Truth,” statistics from Columbia uni. professor Jim Hansen and powerful oratory from Al Gore later I emerged out of Town Hall, a changed person. I feel like I am part of something universal, a movement that’s larger than life.

During the elections, I had the opportunity to see John Kerry. He came to my university to encourage students to vote for me and I remember not being impressed with his speech at all. It didn’t move me. But today, sitting on those plush front seats in Manhattan’s Town Hall listening to Al Gore gush passionately about protecting the planet and fighting global warming, I fell deeply in love with this man’s mission, vision and sense of purpose.

Global warming is not a myth. We are witnessing a climactic shift right now. In the last 30 years, the temperature of earth has risen by 1F. And another 2F are in the pipeline. If the temp. on Earth rises anymore –earth’s temperature will leave the climate range it has stayed in since one million years. And when that happens : it will be catacylismic. A 20 metre rise in sea-level will submerge half of Manhattan, 50 million people in India and millions of people elsewhere.
Animals are already migrating north — If global warming continues at the current rate, 50% of animal and plant species will exterminate within the next century.

I urge you to please visit, “www.stopglobalwarming.org” and do your bit.

I will use Al Gore’s introductory remarks to drive him the point:
1) Global warming is real. It is happening. Look around you.
2) We, human beings, are responsible for it.
3) The results are bad, approaching worse.
4) We need to fix it.
5) WE HAVE THE TIME. The window has not closed yet.

Do you remember learning about chloro-flouro-carbons in school? In the 90’s, scientists convinced the nation that CFC’s were depleting the ozone layer. The media paid attention, the government paid attention and the public took action. Result? we won the battle. Within the next decade, the CFC’s problem will be entirely solved. The gases are already on the decline in the environment.

If we could do that once, we can do it again. If we were active once, we can once again find the perseverence to believe in this cause. If we need to sign a petition, raise a protest or lobby the government– we can do it. Because without the government’s support, it is a lost battle. If you want to know why, visit the sites I mentioned and use your common sense.

Before we hit an irreversible change in climate, it’s time to renew the political will of Americans. And one more request: watch the Al Gore movie, “An Inconvinient Truth.” He is going to release the powerpoint presentation of his movie under the Creative Commons Licsence and allow users to use his presentation in our voices. So we will soon have that available too.

We have the tools, we have the determination and the will power– all we need to do now is act on it. And collectively if we try, there is something each of us can do to save our planet.

1) Become vegeterians. Or atleast change your eating habits and eat lower down the food chain. Believe it or not, it helps conserve the environmental balance.
2) Use car-pools. Or buy hybrids. Or use public transportation. I do not own a car and do not intend to. Partly because I am lazy but mostly because it is one less contributing to pollution and traffic.
3) Save paper, save electricity. Don’t keep your chargers plugged in if you aren’t using them. Little things — just pay attention around you.
4) Leave me a comment– tell me how YOU are doing your bit.

***

What we believe, defines us. My moment of clarity came one afternoon in Florence. Florentine leather wholesalers fiercely lured us into their showrooms and showed us their varieties of leather. “Feel this,” he said, thrusting a beautiful, buttery soft violet leather coat in my direction. “This is newly-born lambskin. Touch.. touch.. this is so soft.”
He had leather coats of every imaginable animal, in every imaginable stage of growth. I was repulsed. “Baby calfskin, cowskin, baby lambskin….”
Gory images of dead animals being skinned for the coats stacked precariously in the 1000sq. ft showroom flashed in my head one after another. I could not bear to stay there anymore. I had bile rising in my stomach.
Ironically, Florence killed my fascination with leather.

It is difficult to stay true to my ideals and beliefs especially when a lot of what I do is so closely connected to the fashion industry. BUT, but BUT– you do what you can, when you can and how you can. It’s not an SAT exam, no one’s watching you, and no one’s holding a gun to your head. We may be long dead before the climate takes a turn for the worse, but our children will be. So let’s do what we can, let’s spread the word, let’s believe.

Al Gore narrated an interesting anecdote. He said, in Chinese, the word Crisis is represented by two symbols plugged together. The first symbol by itself stands for danger and the second symbol by itself stands for opportunity. So danger+opportunity=crisis.

I am a part of the solution. Will you join me?