I get scared when I watch Enough Rope and see Tim Flannery*on there, close to tears, looking scared shitless because our Government and most Governments of the world aren’t doing enough to combat climate change. What’s possibly worse is that he doesn’t use extensive flowery language, but you can tell in every gesture and in his eyes, his tired eyes, that he’s afraid our planet is going to hell. According to him, we’ve already passed the tipping point, which was sometime back in the 1990’s. Back when the only people who were really caring were hippies and a certain number of marginal scientists who were all were being written off as scare mongers. Or, worse, capitalist doomsday-ers.
I wonder what Tim’s most afraid of? Governmental ineptitude? Sure. But Andrew Denton that night didn’t ask Tim if he wasn’t frustrated with us normal people for doing nothing. Frustrated with urban dwellers and suburbanites alike, or the poor buggers on the land who understand more than most what the hell’s going on, for not using our voices as loudly as we should be. Or ought to be. I’m luckier than most people when it comes to the comforts of life - I’ll admit this, and you probably can to - but it hasn’t escaped my attention that my shopping bill has gone up about 20 per cent since Keira was born (taking our growing family into consideration) and in the past 12 months all of our power bills have gone up and we’re doing nothing different than what we did before.
I can see why people start getting despondent at this point . I don’t blame them. They stare at a bill and go fuck it. Fuck it all. How can I do anything about climate change when the money for my kids’ next lay-by payment for their Christmas presents is going to be siphoned off elsewhere? Or there are those of us out there who recycle a plastic bottle here, a piece of cardboard there, more often than they used to and their brains say Bravo. Clap clap clap. You’re doing your part.
I get scared. I get scared, and I get sad. I get angry.
I get frustrated because all the things I had planned to do this time last year for the blog to help, to use my voice (what there is), has not happened. Perhaps this is understandable given all that’s on my plate lately, but I daresay this is what most other people say. And what good are excuses?
I had grand plans for this fundraiser, which has stalled since May. I blink and it’s already October. I have this little pocket diary which I sat down with in January for over an hour to fill in all the big ‘world’ dates so as to remember to write about each as they occurred. Have I? In 99% of cases, no. In fact, I’m not too sure where it is at the moment.
Sure, there’s this pledge - but is it enough? And there’s a couple of other groups in my community I’m involved with and don’t discuss here - but is it enough?Is it enough when we in foreseeable future could be sitting in our lounge rooms with the sea pouring in, or our children will be doing so with their children, and we will all look at each other and go, “How did we come to this?”
Yes, I get scared.
Don’t you?
7:10 am
I am ashamed to admit this, but I’ve become somewhat narcotized to all that. I was once a vocal proponent for the environment, and political change. But a decade and a half of working from the trenches for all that change while watching the leaders of this country, and other nations, speak with a forked tongue has me jaded. Very few things have changed, I’ve noticed, with the exception of my capacity for cynicism.
Of course, there’s still that part of me that hopes I’m wrong…and that still makes sure we use as little electricity and water, while generating as little waste as possible.
And Karen, you still do a heck of a lot more than the average world citizen. So, please, go easy on yourself on this one, okay?
8:42 am
I have managed to physically save one tree. one tree from being cut down because it was ’supposedly’ going to fall on the power lines. That was 10 or 15 years ago. one tree isn’t much when they are woodchiping Tasmania’s forests faster than ever before.
I am scared. I am also tired. I just dont have the energy at the moment to try and save a forest coupe from being logged only to watch it burn..
I do have the energy to be selective with my shopping dollar though. But it is getting harder and harder to find food in the supermarket that isn’t imported.
I fought for the environment when my children were small. Now i have a small grand daughter and i don’t know if i have the energy to put those boots back on..
Thanks for this post Karen you have made me think that it is probably time that I wrote about the shameful state of Tasmania’s forests and the corruption in our government.. cheers kim
frogpondsrock’s last blog post..Weeeekly Winnnnerrrrs.
2:31 pm
I know there is a doco floating about, not that I have seen it but I do intend to, on how quickly the earth would recover from human existence. How insignificant we are in the end!
I try everyday in a small way to do my little bit, and each year that is (I believe anyway) getting bigger and better. Thats all i can do and the rest as they say will take care of itself.
6:11 pm
*snigger* you said the f word…
Actually, I am actually surprised at the amount of people that do NOTHING. Long showers, don’t recycle, waste energy, yada yada yada. I hope that my small contribution is doing something.
And I get to feel smug and know I am better than them
Kelley’s last blog post..I rock. You rock. We totally rock!
6:23 pm
What makes me scared (and very bloody angry) is how all these gas/electricity/water companies have jumped on the band wagon and raised the prices through the roof, yet they’ve actually done nothing (or next to nothing) to justify these rises or to combat carbon emissions.
All the knobs and tools are screwing $ out of people, in the name of the environment, without doing anything pro-active for the environment.
Jayne’s last blog post..Trivial History September 29
6:49 pm
D - I think you flatter me with the last bit…
Too much!
Kim - Thank you for that. I think you’ve done your part, fought the fight well. And you’re doing what you can, which is what Tassja and Kelley are all also doing.
(Tassja - that sounds like a good doco)
Jayne- damn fine point as usual! Filing that in my memory…
8:56 pm
i have to say its really hard to make a big difference, when your trying pay the mortgage, work hard you can do many little things, car pool to and from work, turn off the retic in winter, never wash your car…
but what i really want to do, get some solar panels, solar hot water, a big rain tank, sorry cant afford it, not that and the mortgage, and the rates, and the petrol and groceries, i dont even have kids yet!!!
2:39 am
Oh, not flattery, Karen, just the truth. You may not be out trying to take down Japanese whaling trawlers or American oil barges, but you make plenty of efforts that don’t involve you getting drowned in a ship’s wake.
7:00 am
I am content to say that I am in a blissful state of denial.
Michelle’s last blog post..No peeing in the (kitchen) sink
3:51 am
I am frightened of the people who do nothing. You do more than most. I try - I recycle and keep the house ridiculously cold to save electricity, but I can’t afford a Prius and we have no public transportation, and you cannot fit two carseats on a bicycle. it can be frustrating.
6:17 pm
I just found your blog through themomblogs.com and can I just say that I was thrilled to see this post. I only just recently found out that there are people like Sarah Palin who think that WE have nothing to do with Global warming, and that it’s not as bad as it seems. I was SO angry to find that there are other’s out there, because the environment is SO important to me that I just can’t understand how other’s could blow it off like it’s nothing.
I am SCARED. I am scared every single day. Every time I turn on the taps in the shower I wonder if one day in the near future I’ll turn on those taps and nothing will happen. And if it doesn’t happen to me, then surely it will be my son. Or his kids. When the water is gone, the plants die. When the plants die where do we get our oxygen from? And when we have no oxygen…what then???
Thank you for the effort you make. Having read that you feel like you’ve done enough, don’t let it be that you do nothing still. It’s never too late, and every little bit counts. This time next year when you look back, you’ll remember there was a lull in your attention to detail…but then you’ll be able to say “but look what I’ve done since then”
I’m adding you to my list of blogs I read!
Boo’s last blog post..Why blog??
5:02 am
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