Monday was Blog Action Day, and I missed it. I really didn't mean to, but I just...forgot. I was reminded about it today, a little late to be part of the thousands of people (and some pretty big companies) who actually participated.
It's something I don't write about, but I've been learning a lot about environmental issues lately. I'm taking a seminar that focused on climate change for the first five weeks, and it was fascinating. The point of the course is to give journalists an understanding of some of the issues that are facing the world today that we might find ourselves writing about. Before the recent flurry of news stories about the environment and climate change in particular, coverage had been fairly scant for years.
It's a scary proposition when you start looking more in-depth at the impact of billions of people living on an only-recently industrialized planet, literally burning it up, eroding the coastlines, driving up the temperature just that one or two degrees it needs to set things spinning. It's an immense concern, something that we may well see even more negative consequences from in our lifetime. Stories about the drought in Africa are frightening really, especially when you consider the human cost. And remember the big hurricane a few years back? How it changed the culture of one of the greatest cities in the country still depresses me. I can't imagine how I'd feel if I'd lived there.
And what is so irksome is, once you get a little bit into the history of how the United States in particular has handled threats to the environments with protection of threats against politicians and economic interests instead, you realize that this is not new news. It's been around for decades. It's just that no one really did anything about it, and we happen to have elected (sort of) an administration that will defend your right to shoot Bambi down AND cut down the woods where she lives.
Good for Al Gore, by the way. I think losing the election may have been a blessing in disguise.
The Blog Action Day blog (how's that for meta?) has plenty of links to more information. It's not too late to register, as a belated supporter. That's what I did.
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