My Personal Story of Climate Change and Environmental Interest

I recently read an article about climate change and its effects on the world and humans that inspired me to take action.  Well, inspired isn’t the word – more like scared, terrified, horrified and shocked with the reality of what is happening.  Here’s the article: The Uninhabitable Earth from New York Magazine from July 9, 2017.  That’s when I realized that the changes are coming soon, and the earth may become uninhabitable during my children’s lifetimes. 

It really shocked and depressed me.

I don’t know what I was thinking before – maybe that it was far off and there was time for us to come around to working on the problem, and using our science and technology to finding a solution.  Or just that my daily life is not affected so I will worry about that later.

What I really worry about now is the effect on children’s lives.  What will it be like growing up knowing the world is on this path?  How can kids today live and plan for their future with that knowledge?  My own kids are too young to grasp the issue now.  Very soon they will.

After reading the article I began looking around at my world and my friends and neighbors, and wondering how we can go on acting so normal, running our heaters and air conditioners and driving our SUV’s when these things are killing our children’s futures.  I started looking for what I can do to help.  It’s not that easy to figure out!  Although it did come back to the things I knew I should have been doing all along.  I felt horrible that I hadn’t done anything to reduce my carbon footprint while the earth is getting hotter and more unstable.

First thing I did was install solar panels on our house.  Then I shopped around for an electric car to replace the minivan I had been driving.  I got a Chevy Bolt.  Now I’m looking into other things I can do.  I hope writing this blog will reach somebody else who is going through the same thing, looking for ways to make a difference.  If you would like to add a comment below, please do!