The dirty air we breathe
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
Back from Manhattan – not exactly the “greenest” city in the world. The weather was glorious for mid-June, but as I left, and the temperatures were warming a bit, I could gaze down the canyons of the city streets and see the pollution hanging between the buildings. Still, one must breathe.
The air in New York City is dangerous, especially in the summer. Of course, I then return to the DC area, which also boasts some of the dirtiest air in the country, mostly ozone caused by car emissions.
Over the weekend, an article in the NY Times was a reminder of why there is no simple, local, or national solution to the life-threatening problems of air pollution and global warming. Check out this very long article about the impact of China’s use of coal to fuel its economic growth on air pollution and climate change not only there, but as the toxic cloud wafts across the ocean to the US west coast. China’s coal-burning emissions are now contributing to the serious problems of air pollution in Washington, Oregon, and northern California. Meanwhile, India is doing its best to catch up with China.
And the article notes that this pollution, which sickens and kills, is also keeping somewhat of a lid on global warming. When that lid dissipates, then we’ll really see warming speed up. Pick your poison.
How did we let it come to this?
I was in NYC for the Bat Mitzvah of one of my favorite young persons in the whole world – you know, the kind of young person that gives one hope for the future. When folks asked me what I was doing now, and I started talking about Ecological Hope, they resonated immediately, would start off on their concerns and fears for the future. I run into this all the time now. Most folks are getting the message. They know we are in trouble.
I think this may be one of the most important things we can do – get people talking, give them/us space to vent fears and anxieties, to say out loud what they know to be true. We need to create these “spaces,” build community around them, and then find ways to turn that fear into action.
On an occasion like this one in NYC, when we honor an adolescent’s rite of passage, we see the future from the perspective of this child we have loved, many of us practically from her birth, and wonder what kind of future we are leaving her.
June 22nd, 2006 at 4:03 pm
[...] The comment had as backdrop a country whose development is being fueled largely by coal-fired power plants, whose air has grown increasingly toxic, with its pollution spreading across the ocean to coastal communities in the US. Emissions of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, are increasing exponentially across the globe. [...]