Planet Earth

I just watched Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth. And, for those of you who say, “Oh, I saw that ages ago- what took you so long?”… the short explanation is there was a fire in the theatre when I went to it on opening night.

I was watching quite contently. Absorbing the facts and data and enjoying Al’s momentary jabs at “the current administration” and jokes about what idiots they all are. It was all new information to me, in terms of the graphs and scales etc.

It was disturbing.

The footage of Katrina, melting ice caps and the undeniable truth of it all though didn’t hit me until the part with the simulated Polar Bear swimming in the ocean.

Do you remember?

There was this animated polar bear- not at all realistic looking… swimming along in the water and he comes to a piece of ice about the size of his body and he tries to jump onto it, and it breaks in half. So he tries to jump on to the broken half, and it breaks in half. And the pieces that are left for him are too small for him to use as a resting space and he is left there dog paddling in the water.

Al’s story continues throughout the animation and he says for the first time, scientists have been finding polar bears that have drown because of such phenomena.

That’s when I lost it. I totally broke out crying like a little girl.

Now, just so you don’t think I am one of those people that only cries about animals and has no sensitivity to human tragedy- I also broke out crying during Spiderman 1 when the Aunt May tells Peter, “sometimes the world needs heroes”…

I saw the movie on the year anniversary on 9/11 and the event was heavy on my mind.

I watched the rest of Al’s movie and at many times felt disgust, rage and sadness. Our media and our politicians (what is the difference really?) have obfuscated the issue to a polarizing extent. Environmentalists are dirty hippies, nut cases, alarmists etc. And the rest are presumably the one’s who just want to preserve the “American Way”- good jobs, a healthy economy, good schools, happy, healthy families. Arg.

I wonder though, how many people, how many politicians really will change?

The movie could have done a better job at “rallying the troops” into action…but maybe they didn’t want to seem too preachy. The facts alone should be catalyst enough to act.

I hope so.

I am going to change my light bulbs, drive less, ride my bike more and try to get a residential recycling program at my building (here is the # and website for those living in LA 626-458-3547/http://ladpw.org/epd/recycling/faq.cfm#where).

Admittedly, I wonder though if it will come down to the Schelling predicament…where my actions don’t equate to much real change because no one else follows suit. What we need are laws that require everyone to act… so that no one feels they are sacrificing their comfort for the many that choose not to act.

At least that is what I think.

After all, it would be really lame if SF and Manhattan were under water.

Humble

Today I had one of those humbling moments when I thought to myself, "you're such a jerk Charlotte".

For the past couple of weeks I have been hearing this high pitched squeal-like noise outside of my apartment. I would hear it in the morning, during the day, and even sometimes in the early evening. I wouldn't hear it all the time, but enough to be pretty annoying. The sound was akin to metal scraping on metal, like a metal chain grinding against itself in motion, almost like the sound that the chains of old swings make when they, well, swing.

So anyhow, today as I am sitting in my kitchen reading the billion of pages of stuff I need to read by to pretty much tomorrow, I start to hear the noise.

A little agitated, I think to myself, "Geez, seriously, what the FUCK is that noise?"

I had to go out and get the mail, so on my way, I stop in front of my building where the noise is concentrated and loud. I look around and up- and there it is in the fig tree.

A birdy.

Of course, I had previously surmised it might be a bird- but it was a really strange noise and really annoying... and generally, I am not annoyed by nature... so anyhow,

I think to myself, "that little bird is making all that noise?"

And then, all of the sudden, another birdy swoops down and the other birdy opens his loud mouth and in drops a worm! It was a BABY BIRD!!

I am such a jerk.

Here I am, in the middle of this crazy metropolis of pollution, concrete, steel, people and lack of green--- and this little bird is just REALLY hungry and needs to be loud so his parents can find him and make him fat.

He was so young that he couldn't even fly- he justed peeped from branch to branch, screaching his little heart out for some yummy worm.

Here is a picture of what he may have looked like a few weeks back... he's older now:

So... the moral of the story is... make up your own, I suppose.

All I know is this is one moment that humbled me and made me laugh at myself pretty good.