Climate Change

It is blog action day again, the one day a year that bloggers unite to write about a topic of concern. This year I've been asked to write about climate change. With all of the recent news stories about tsunamis, hurricanes, floods and such it is hard to ignore the disastrous affects that climate change is having on lives around the world. This is truly a topic which concerns us all. The deeper question for me is always to try to figure out how does this really affect me - and what steps does that mean I can and should take to help do my part? Here in Paraguay I'm not sure that climate change is a big concern. There don't seem to be any emissions control on vehicles, liter is clearly a big problem, recycling has just begun to be talked about and spread (our students are trying to reach out to other schools to get them interested in recycling programs, although there are the horse cart men who dig through the trash for recyclables - more on that at a later date), clean water is still not available for everyone even in Asuncion leading to greater use of bottled water...I couldn't even tell you if any changes in climate have affected crop growing in Paraguay at all. I just don't see the immediate results here. So what are the affects? Personally, I think it is in the idea of places that I want to travel to having a limited shelf life - will I get to the Galapagos Islands before they are to far destroyed to admit visitors? Will weather patterns make it difficult to enjoy the time off to travel I do get? Those are the thoughts which lead me to consider what I can do personally that might make a difference. My lifestyle doesn't lend itself to saying I'll try not to take gas guzzling flights, but that doesn't mean that I can't do some small things. I can continue to walk the 20-40 minutes it takes to get to almost any of my destinations in Asuncion, instead of calling a taxi, or explore the bus system. I can continue to "Agroshop" on Tuesdays - local farmers with products (possible organic) available 6 blocks from house. I can make sure all that paper I'm throwing away at school goes into the recycle box instead of into the trash can. I can embrace reusable plastic containers over plastic bags for packing lunch and snacks. I am sure there are many other things I can be doing in the belief that the only thing that makes any big change is all of the little people making small changes. I encourage you to think about what steps you could take to help combat the problems brought about by the climate changes in our world.