Planning To Succeed

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

New York Swelter

It's the fourth or fifth heatwave for NYC and counting. These heatwaves will not let up. In fact, humidity and high temperatures in the 90s will become common summer weather here. Beyond carbon emissions, global warming is a natural occurrence. Other planets in our solar system are warming up as well. These planets don't have throwaway paper-,plastic- and petroleum-dependent humans to contend with. Humans are just making it more unbearable. Living in a city intensifies the situation because the asphalt roads and cement sidewalks, curbs, and parking lots make the urban design seem orderly but it covers vegetation. Trees, bushes, and grass regulate the temperature, provide shade, absorb carbon dioxide, emit oxygen, and calm nerves. I frequently walk through streets and wish I had a jack hammer to break up the cement to free the Earth. It's just a daydream and won't act on it but the grass and weeds do their best find cracks and spaces in the cement and asphalt from where to sprout out. So knowing how great trees and bushes serve humanity, why not serve them? Get a pail of water and pour it in a tree tub near your house or apartment. The Department of Sanitation isn't watering the trees nor is the Department of Parks and Recreation, so New Yorkers have to do it. Put yourself in the place of a tree, your higher roots are cramped in the tree tub; your lower roots are slowly extending deeper into the Earth seeking moisture. The trees somehow. How long could humans live without water? Hey,share your Fiji water.

Labels: climate change, community, environment, lifestyle, New York City, the Earth

Thursday, October 15, 2009

October 24 is 350 Parts recognition day

Summer rolled into fall and I've been battling with roaches and flies for months. I finally laid down more roach motels because I have misgivings about mashing these critters. They say to me, "We don't know nothing about apartments or buildings or property. We just know where to find water and food."

I'd mash them some more and a scout would run back to tell the others of my deathly ways. These critters said, this time, "We were here before humans got here and will be here after you leave." It's very true, roaches haven't changed their appearance in millions of years and have withstood fire, volcanos, hurricanes, tornadoes, ice and droughts.

This had me think about the ways human civilizations have perished on this globe. Machu Pichu came and left; so did Pompeii and Timbuktu. Humans have a way of taxing the ecosystem and, then cry, "Mercy!" when the rivers and lakes dry up or the soil can't grow plants. Imagine there are people willing to buy melted glacier ice from the Antartic without thinking how harmful chopping it up will be for the whole planet.

God love Al Gore and his global connections because he's put climate change and human sustainability center stage. 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe level for human existence. On October 24, people and institutions around the globe will do something--rally, fast, present petitions--to demand a breathable--for humans, plants and critters--atmosphere.

To take part in this death-defying action visit http://www.350.org/ Get information, resources and events to save humans from themselves. As I said before the roaches told me, "We were here before humans got here and will be here when you leave." Don't prove them right.

Labels: Al Gore, climate change, sustainability, the Earth