An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore

I just finished reading Al Gore's book, An Inconvenient Truth. It's all about the climate crisis and his efforts to raise awareness and push for legislative reform that will protect the environment. He uses lots of scientific research to support his points, but he presents it all in a colorful, easy to understand way with lots of pictures and graphs to illustrate his points. He's pretty convincing.

One study by Dr. Naomi Oreskes of the University of Calafornia at San Diego that he cited explored the literature published having to do with global warming. Of the 928 articles published in peer-reviewed, scientific journals during the past 10 years, not a single one doubted that humans were the cause of global warming. In contrast, out of the 636 articles published in the popular press (New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times and the Wall Street Journal) during the past 14 years, 53% expressed doubt as to the cause of global warming (p. 262-263). The social scientist in me says that both samples should have been taken from literature published over the past ten years, instead of 10 for one and 14 for the other. But my guess is that the point would still be made. Gore compares the campaign to avoid consensus on global warming to the campaign by tobacco companies to avoid consensus on the harmful effects of smoking or chewing. It is in the best (financial) interest of some industries to not take action to reduce our negative impact on the environment, just like it was/is in the best interest of tobacco companies for the public not to know the harmful effects of smoking.

Gore focuses on the role that the U.S. is not, but could play. The U.S. and Australia are the only two developed countries who have not signed the Kyoto Treaty which would require all nations to take steps to reduce harmful CO2 emissions that are causing the damage. (The U.S. also didn't sign the rights of the child act, but that's another story). Evidently, the campaign to ignore gobal warming is working.

So this is my bit to raise awareness about the climate crisis. I encourage everyone to either read Al Gore's book, or see the movie version that was also made. The last 15 pages of the book are a list of practical things that each one of us can do to reduce the damage we do to the environment. Visit www.climatecrisis.net to find out the total amount of greenhouse gases that you produce and tips to reduce your greenhouse gases. Go green!

-----------------------------------------
In other news, work continues as normal. Today I'll be working a job fair type event to encourage young people to volunteer with us. Life in Coventry is currently a microcosm of the world, I feel. And I understand now, more than ever, how and why conflict in Northern Ireland persists to this day, and why no one knows exactly how to solve this tricky problem. People are complicated.

Recess part 2!

I got to play in Derry/Londonderry for a few days, AND the entire volunteer team (minus one) got to play together when we had an afternoon out! We went to a nearby beach to run about for awhile and then we drove on to another nearby town where we all got ice cream, even though it was pretty cold out! I debated between honey comb and chocolate truffle. I decided on the chocolate one, though I really do like honey comb, and you can't find honey comb ice cream in the states, I don't think. So here's pictures of all of us goofing off on the beach. Brilliant, I know. I am an artist, after all! :)

Recess!

Hello again! I've been busy working and playing and haven't had time to update, so be prepared for a long one! Two weeks ago, I went to Derry/Londonderry with Niki and Jason for three days. The city is Derry/Londonderry because it was originally called Derry, which is derived from the Irish word for oak trees, which used to be plentiful back in the day. The London part was added when England attempted to 'plant' Ireland with English Protestants. A bunch of London guilders (businessmen) funded the sprucing up of Derry, and got London added to the name for their trouble. This has caused conflict, however, between the Catholic community, who likes to maintain the name 'Derry' and the Protestant community, who prefers 'Londonderry.' The debate has caused so much trouble that some people now refer to it as 'Stroke City' since they always have to call the city 'Derry-stroke-Londonderry' to otherwise keep people happy. Could you imagine if some people wanted to keep calling New York 'New Amsterdam' after the name was changed?
Anyway, despite the drama over what to call this place, we went and really enjoyed ourselves! The first photo shows Niki enjoying our lovely hostel which was located just outside the city walls. We had decent weather the whole time we were there, so we were able to walk all the way around the city on top of the city walls. From these ancient walls, we could see the Bogside, which was a hotbed for conflict during the troubles. Nowadays, people are working hard to change that. The second photo shows one of the newer murals that is now in the Bogside. Each square was painted by a different school in the Derry/Londonderry area. All different colors were used, so that no one would feel offended, since colors represent politics in Northern Ireland. The image of the dove over the colored squares represents peace, and the left wing is even carefully created from the word 'peace.' The other wing is created from half of an oak leaf, which is still an important symbol for the city. The next photo is also taken from the walls of the Bogside. It depicts typical symbols used to 'mark territory' in a way.
The last picture was taken elsewhere inside the city walls, I can't remember exactly where. I find graffiti in Northern Ireland extremely interesting. If you think about it, one goes to a bit of trouble to graffiti something on a public wall. There's the gathering of appropriate materials, and the risk of being caught. So whatever is to be written must be of great importance to the 'artist.' In many cases, this has to do with politics and paramilitaries. But in some cases it doesn't. In the case of this final photo, it's not about politics or paramilitaries. Amid the scribbles of initials and names is the phrase, "You don't hafty spend money to give."
I agree.