An Inconvenient Truth

I caught Al Gore's film today, for the first time, on the Discovery Channel. Holy crap! The graphics projecting the scenario if Greenland and/or the Artic melt is truly frightening. I remember as a kid, being told that one day, San Francisco will be under the ocean. It scared me to death, considering I grew up 7 blocks east of Ocean Beach! But that graphic on this documentary shows much of the SF Bay Area being covered in water, as well as Beijing, New York City and many, many more highly populated cities around the world.

And the numbers he shows for the car industry is uncanny, especially considering the recent bailouts requested from Detroit. There's a reason Honda and Toyota are doing well...low emission vehicles and no emission vehicles in development. Meanwhile, US auto companies continued to push bigger SUVs, Vans and Trucks. Good lord! When I was a child, our family of 5 crammed into a Ford Pinto. It can be done. A family can use a smaller car and be okay. Same thing with homes. Why does each member of the family need their own bathroom and larger, oversized bedroom? Personally, I prefer a smaller home...it's easier to keep clean as well as heat/cool. Now that 450 sq. foot cottage (read: converted, detached two-car garage) was a little small for us (namely due to lack of storage...NO closets!), but seriously....how much space does one couple and a few small pets need? As we think about buying a home, I don't really want to consider anything more than 3 bd/2ba and 2000 sq. ft. And that's if we plan to have a couple of kids. If not, I am fine with a 2 bd/1 ba bungalow. Seriously.

Here is 10 things you can do to reduce global warming.