Think Globally, Act Locally

After watching Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and perusing the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, the imperative task of mitigating global climate change has been made clear. Scientific evidence of rising temperatures, as well as rising carbon dioxide levels has become irrefutable.

Here is one of the principle pieces of evidence used in Al Gore's documentary:

This chart shows the seasonal fluctuations of the level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, and rapidly increasing upward trend since the late 1950s. Since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, it prevents solar radiation from leaving earth's atmosphere, preventing the warmth of this radiation from escaping back into space. The correlation with rising temperatures is not coincidental:

This figure, published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) displays this general upward trend of global temperatures over several centuries. These charts speak incredible volumes, displaying a recent trend completely inconsistent with over a thousand years of global temperature data.

Understanding this global phenomenon, the need to solve this problem on an enormous scale is quite urgent. Unfortunately, global and even national-scale problem solving is not a forte of the human race. We all have conflicting ideas, and the more people you have working to solve a single issue, the more conflicting arguments you will find. This process typically results in urgent issues dragging on over time we cannot afford to waste. Moreover, issues of this scale must go through intense political processes, something well known to be anything but expeditious. Varying ideas as they relate to political and economic systems end up in a deadlock of controversy. People become so bogged down with our inefficient means of implementing change that many simply give up. Issues of this scale become incredibly ominous and people begin to wonder how they can possibly make a difference.

People begin to understand they can't just walk into a United Nations conference with a well-prepared speech and change the world. There will always be critics. There will always be opposition. For this reason, it is clear to understand the power of grassroots movements. As the famous words echo "think globally, act locally". This becomes a much more comprehensible approach, something palpable and graspable to the everyday citizen. As Bill McKibben states in his book "Eaarth", "The project we are now undertaking – maintenance, graceful decline, hunkering down, holding on against the storm – requires a different scale. Instead of continents and vast nations, we need to think about states, about towns, about neighborhoods, about blocks.”

Over my next few blog posts, I'd like to understand some local environmental efforts employed around the world. I will try to observe various programs in my prospective cities, and explore the possibility of implementing their success here in Kalamazoo.