Dear Sprite,
Welcome! You have written a very interesting, true, and informative article. I think it is your first time writing on the forum. Am I correct?
Damage is already underway. For instance, our northern supply roads are now only open for half the time that they used to be. These roads must be used when they are hard and frozen. In warm weather the ice melts and the roads become compmelts. This is beginning to happen in our north. We have also had trouble with flooding. Do you know that even New York city will be in danger of being entered by the ocean? There are many more forest fires. Here in Canada we are having trouble with insects that have moved into our areas and are causing forest devastation. We have had immense floods in the centre of our country. Where I live there is going to be drought. People have begun to plant native plants and sun lovers that don't need much water, so that we can save water for human use and won't need to irrigate plants and gardens as much. They are developing new crops that don't need as much water.
Global warming causes all sorts of climate shifts. Things don't just warm up slowly and gradually. There are jerks happening in the climate. Cold appears where it hasn't been before, drought appears, but also great storms of ice and snow where they shouldn't be at certain times of the year at all. As more people feel the results they are sure to begin to demand more general change, and to change their own habits more and more.
I think these climate troubles will also cause humanity to finally band togetherto save themselves. That is what happens here when there is a surprise giant snowstorm. People who had never spoken with each other before become friendly and open, and you discover that they are good, decent people. I think this willalso happen on a world level. It will also require international cooperation. So, war is not the only reason that we need more and more international cooperation, good international law, and ways of consulting.
In Canada we are starting to teach very young children, even in kindergarten, about this now, in ways that they can understand. The experience here from teaching young children about the dangerous effects of smoking; cigarettes and second hand smoke causing lung cancer has been that the children talk to their parents. The parents are reminded of what they already know, but their innocent children's reminders go a long way to helping them to change their behaviour. It is also hoped that the children will not smoke in the future. Similarly it is hoped that learning about damaging the environment will help both parents and children who will be the adults of the future, to make wise choices that are good for the planet, and all of us. Older public school students and high school students have been studying about global warming and recycling, and related things, for a long time now.
Many efforts are being made here in Canada, and in the USA to change methods of getting energy. They are using wind energy, and looking at wave energy, using sun energy, and other ways of getting non-polluting, non-damaging energy.
We are doing a lot of recycling at all levels here in Canada. I expect it is the same in the USA. I know in Germany they are very strict about recycling. Glass and many plastics are now recycled. So is aluminum, steel, and other metals, car oil, and even clothing and furniture, as well as many other things.
When things are recycled it is a good energy saver. They don't need to be made over again, which wastes both materials and energy. They don't get thrown away into garbage landfills to pollute the environment, and they often are a great help to people who need the things and can buy them for very low cost, in the case of clothing and furniture and household items, toys, and so on. Secondhand cars have always been resold. When cars are no longer working they are also recycled.
In Germany and other countries in Europe it is the law that manufacturers must take back all the packaging materials they use. This stops overpackaging, and ensures recycling.
Here in Canada all cardboard cartons are taken back directly from businesses, and recycled. Offices recycle their old files and papers for new paper products.
Each home recycles glass, metal, #2 white cloudy plastic and all paper and cardboard. Municipal trucks pick up the blue bag containers with the household recycling every second week. Many people are recycling their garden and kitchen vegetable waste back into the ground, as Ben and I do. Garden clippings and tree limbs are picked up about four times a year and taken to a central place for chipping and recycling back into the earth. There is always a Christmas tree pick-up and the Christmas trees are chipped and recycled into the earth for compost. The compost is used in parks and by plant nurseries. Individuals buy compost, or make compost for their gardens.
There are many experiments here underway to see how best to recycle, so things don't have to be made again and use up energy. They have been following the laws to use better equipment in smokestacks, called "scrubbers", to capture particle pollutants before they can be belched out into the air.
I wish that things would progress much faster than they are. There are now articles telling that sports vehicles, called SUV's, waste a lot of gasoline, and also that they are unsafe. Also that people who drive them are stupid and uncaring. This is to encourage people to stop using SUV's.
Here in Canada we have to use a lot of energy for warmth in buildings in long winters. That makes the amount of energy we use look very wasteful when you compare it with warmer countries than we have. We also need equipment to clear snow, and for other climate related problems. The answer is a cheap, non-polluting, renewable source of energy. That is the great search right now.
Thank you Sprite, for raising an excellent topic, and writing so well and feelingly about it.
Best wishes to you,
Mary
