While there are few comment on this Groundling blog, you are reading, so I will not be discouraged!
There was a piece on CBC news last night about the growing crisis of air pollution in China and particularly in its large cities. http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/ID/2328559425/ Beijing, presented as a showcase during the Olympics, is shrouded in an acrid, almost inpenetrable cloud of pollution. Citizens are warned about the health risks of being outside, many wear masks to go about routine activities, and lots have pollution apps on their cellphones to let them know how dangerous the levels of particulate are. It is estimated that 400,000 Chinese die per year of air pollution illnesses. What a price to pay for rapid economic growth.
Of course this isn't just a Chinese problem. At the risk of sounding crass, there can be no peeing and non-peeing sections of the swimming pool, and as we have already concluded in this country, no smoking and non-smoking sections in the restaurant. We realize that we share water and air and it is naive or willful ignorance to say that what happens elsewhere in the world doesn't affect us. And the prevailing winds are from west to east.
We have participated in the 350.org campaign out of our conviction that Christians must act to cherish and protect our planet home. The goal is to bring greenhouse junk from a dangerous 390 parts per million back to a threshold of 350.
Do you think we really comprehend the extent of this airpocalypse, as it was termed last night? Yesterday I came out of the church to see a large pick-up truck in one of the staff parking spots, idling, with no driver. I was tempted to drive the truck down the street and turn it off. This virtually beneath our new solar panels Still, I use fossils fuels and our Canadian oil sands are major producers of greenhouse gases.
Is it worth even pondering?
Of course it's worth pondering. Tehran had two city-wide shutdowns in both December and January, where its citizens were ordered to stay home from work and school because air pollution levels were so dangerous. I read about Tehran and had that moment of helplessness because I thought, what is the point of doing your little part, if others/other parts of the world aren't doing anything about it and we'll all suffer anyways? Makes me think of the different endangered animal species who are just as helpless when they lost their living spaces. It's worth pondering and worth talking about out loud. Because just since reading your blogs, 4/5 times I now make the conscious choice to park my car and go into the 'unnamed' coffee shop, instead of idling in the drive thru. I never would have thought twice about it before. Discussion brings awareness and awareness can bring change. Hopefully we won't hide in our ignorance for much longer before we won't be able to leave our homes to meet for discussion!
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