Week #8

An Inconvenient Truth......

In my second viewing of this film, I am still so shaken by what it has to teach. Kudos for anyone who can get through this stream of thoughts. My bike ride home from class is a hard 30 minute climb and I don't even remember it as I was stewing over some details. Now two weeks later, I feel it is not consuming all my thoughts.

I am struck with so many emotions in reaction to this film. Fear, anger, sadness, frustration, and a tiny bit of hope.

This issue is flat out scary. The reference he made to the ice age happening in only ten years horrified me. This issue is pressing and it seems that we are doomed. I am so happy that Gore made a movie about this and I think it was very wise to make it a moral issue over a political issue. As it is a moral issue, and if it were political perhaps many more people would not have seen it. I flat out can't believe that there are skeptics to global warming. The signs are everywhere around us, and the statistics that he provided were pretty irrefutable. So I am scared. I don't think unless major political policies are changed that we have much hope. I am so curious what would have happened if Gore became our president. If we would all be driving electric cars. So, thank you Mr. Gore for making a movie that explained the issues in a mature way, and trying to show how pressing this is.

The anger comes from my personal hopes. I have devoted my life to living green. It really is a lifestyle. It effects what I eat, how I travel, how I want to raise my children, etc. I am floored by how many people are not doing anything. Being single and "dating" a bit, even in the bay area, I am considered eccentric for living this way. That is crazy! This is not an issue of race, class, or gender, this is our future. And the hardest part for me is I feel I am doing all that I can. I have to live with waste of all the millions that don't know or don't care. It seems unfair. Not that I am a saint, but sometimes I wonder why I try so hard.

Perhaps on a personal note, all that I really wanted out of this life is to be a good mom. And now it seems that a huge footprint is to have a child. So with my lifelong dream to bare a child one day, I am leaning towards adopting instead. This seems so backwards. Why do all the people that don't do anything about the problem get to pop out as many kids as they want, and then the people that know the issue have to make this choice. Furthermore, what do I want for my child's future? I don't want them having to make boats to find the only land that is left from the icecaps melting. And what if that happens in the next ten years, perhaps I won't even get to live my dream. (Its not like I asked to be a rock star, wanting to raise a child seems like a fair dream). So I am pissed.

Nonetheless, I love nature. It nourishes me, and for that I am so deeply thankful that it seems only natural to try to live in harmony with it. I am so scared of who we have become. So thank you al gore for putting us in our place (even if every single shot of you in the film is of you using some sort of fossil fuel..oops). I wish you could more people what to do.

Thank you Michael Moore for putting us in our place. Sicko was another important movie.
Thank you Leonardo Decaprio, I have not seen his new movie, but big cheers for a "heart throb" making a movie about serious green urban designs. I guess change is in the air. What makes us so numb? I have to believe that it is that we don't know how to help.

yikes, I am going to break this blog site.