Will history remember the Iraq War - or Global Warming?
Taking nothing away from the huge significance and dire consequences of the Iraq War, and with great applause to all those who organize to stop it (including many of us here at the Polar Bear Plunge), it's hard not to notice the discrepancy between the media and government attention lavished upon the Iraq War, and that given to global warming. As famous environmental author and Step It Up founder Bill McKibben reflected in the Washington Post last week: "Forget the Petraeus report -- what historians will note about September 2007 is that the Northwest Passage was free of ice for the first time since humans started keeping track."
As record arctic ice melt combines with more powerful hurricanes and extreme weather (drought, floods, heat waves) all over the planet, the need for extreme action on global warming - like jumping into a cold body of water in the winter - has never been more urgent. Thanks so much for joining a Plunge near you - or starting one of your own!
Read Bill McKibben's full commentary, with links for Step It Up 2, by clicking here - The Race Against Warming.
That is absolutely right, most news is a distraction, we've got to ask ourselves what are we doing watching the news, TV anyway. Its a distraction not only from the outside world; from which everyone is growing unattached, but from our inner selves as well. TV and news merely presents a sterilized view of current events and offers nothing constructive, no answers so we get the sinking feeling of powerlessness which compels us to sit a while longer and get fat and feel bad about everything. If we just got up, moved, stretched, walked, talked, played and instrument, or wrote something we would feel like ourselves again and actually be productive. We'd have more time to crusade and we would feel good about it, empowered, unstoppable, cuz we don't know all the rough facts, inconsclusive facts, just that something needs to be done. Period.
Don't you want to do that?
Everyone falls into this trap. All we can do is try our best to extricate ourselves and instead of being prompted from the outside, be motivated internally because what we are doing is right. No question, right is right; there is no disagreement here, no semantic argument, like what is the nature of good and evil? Skip it.
That is absolutely right, most news is a distraction, we've got to ask ourselves what are we doing watching the news, TV anyway. Its a distraction not only from the outside world; from which everyone is growing unattached, but from our inner selves as well. TV and news merely presents a sterilized view of current events and offers nothing constructive, no answers so we get the sinking feeling of powerlessness which compels us to sit a while longer and get fat and feel bad about everything. If we just got up, moved, stretched, walked, talked, played and instrument, or wrote something we would feel like ourselves again and actually be productive. We'd have more time to crusade and we would feel good about it, empowered, unstoppable, cuz we don't know all the rough facts, inconsclusive facts, just that something needs to be done. Period.
Don't you want to do that?
Everyone falls into this trap. All we can do is try our best to extricate ourselves and instead of being prompted from the outside, be motivated internally because what we are doing is right. No question, right is right; there is no disagreement here, no semantic argument, like what is the nature of good and evil? Skip it.