Cape Karen
My goodness, here it is April 9th, and it was only 22ยบ this morning! My poor crepe myrtle tree is all shriveled-up now from the freeze - it's formerly budding green leaves are all brown and curled-up, looking like pieces of rotten cabbage hanging from the branches. Luckily, I haven't planted any new flowers in my garden beds this year. We had snowstorms in Ohio, and below freezing temperatures in Tennessee - on Easter! What's with that?
Is this cold Spring weather from climate change, or is it just an innocent abberation? I think we're beginning to see the effects of global warming. That might sound like a contradiction, where the temperatures are below freezing in April, but I think it's all linked to a planet whose climate is becoming more and more bizarre because of human induced global warming. I think the alarm was sounded too late, and that the effects of trillions of tons of CO2 being spewed into our atmosphere for decade after decade is not something that can be corrected. I think we might have done ourselves in.
If I were a high school student today, I would be focusing my studies on science. I think we're going to need a lot of scientific discoveries and creative solutions to ward-off future damage, and to try and correct the damage that has been done to our atmosphere. They're talking now about building more nuclear energy plants around the country, like France did in the 70's, as an clean energy source. They were smart and did it right. 90% of their energy now comes from nuclear power. Can we follow their example? Will we do it right? Or will we take shortcuts, be careless, and end up like Chernobyl?
I've been watching the series on Discovery on Sunday nights called, "Planet Earth," and this Earth is so very beautiful! (If you don't have access to cable televison, get the DVD and watch it as a family - it's not to be missed! Such amazing photography!) To think that we've been messing around with the delicate balance of life on our blue planet, just to feed our greed and satisfy our lust for "things" is so sad.
Remember back when just about everyone smoked cigarettes? It was considered so 'adult and cool.' Well, now we know how damaging it was to the health of our lungs and hearts. Same thing on a global scale - as we've grown and matured, learned and discovered new things, we're finally coming to understand how our way of life has been damaging the lungs and heart of the planet we depend on. Our polluting CO2 emissions just have to stop; that is, if we want the planet to continue to live, breathe and thrive.
The next few years will be the test. Will we be able to change our ways? Will we ward-off global disaster? Or will we just ignore the increasingly loud alarm bells and just leave it up to our children and grandchildren to clean up the mess? Let's face it, they'll be the ones who will be living with the consequences of our ignorance and indifference regarding serious environmental matters.
So, study hard, children of the world - beautiful Planet Earth is going to need you!
Now I'm going to go pull out my winter coat and go for a long walk. . . brrrrrr!!