Blog action day – how can you make a difference?

Many of us on this blog action day www.blogactionday.org are aware of our personal duty to help stop climate change. Some folk are already activists and are lobbying their political leaders to make a change in the way we treat our world. But consider for a moment that there are also an awful lot of people for whom the world that we live in is not their first priority. For some people money is a prime motivator and some of these are in a position to influence politicians to help them.
Sadly a lot of politicians will be swayed by this influence and may not act in the environments best interests unless we make our voices heard; unless we convince them that it is in their best interest to listen to our voice for good.
There are many activist sites available on the net these days, but one of the best I have found, and one I can thoroughly recommend is change.org http://globalwarming.change.org/

So on this day of blog action make the extra effort to go on the site and check it out for yourself….     Who knows, you might want to join (it’s free). Check out the pledges and petitions and if you feel its right to do so, then add your voice to the thousands that are already there.
Your vote on an issue will make a difference……..

Climate change links

Here are some great links for Climat Change:
http://www.earthhour.org/home

http://www.350.org/about/blogs/uk-brings-house-down#comments

http://www.unfoundation.org/global-issues/climate-and-energy/its-getting-personal/

http://www.causecast.org/environment

http://globalwarming.change.org/

Climate change – are we destroying the thing that we love?

Back in ’99 I spent a couple of weeks in The Cordillera Huayhuash of Peru. Of course it would have been a waste to go all that way without taking another week first to go to the Galapagos Islands and in addition to stop off on the way back to visit some friends in Florida.
One of the main things that struck me about the Huayhuash was the extent to which the glaciers had receded.
That was ten years ago…….

During 2003, I was fortunate enough to be included in The Scottish Lemon Mountains Expedition to north-east Greenland. As we flew from Ísafjörður, Iceland, in our Twin Otter ski plane, en route to the glacier drop-off in Greenland, the pilot pointed out where the sea-ice used to end just a few years before. We then continued to fly on for another ten minutes before crossing the new sea-ice limit.

Exploring and climbing in these places is for me, one of the great joys of life. But I have to ask myself the question…..   just how much am I personally contributing to the climate change that is blatantly obvious, especially from a Twin Otter at five thousand feet.

Given the amount of air travel involved, then I suspect quite a lot.

Two years ago we travelled to the Yukon in Canada to canoe one of the remote rivers in the north. Our plan on the way back was to stop over for a weeks climbing in the Bugaboos, which we did. Sadly, we sat in the Conrad Cain hut for a week while a blizzard raged outside. Feeling a bit seen off by the weather we made a pact to return and just this week I was planning that return trip for next summer. As I looked at the flights I would need to get me there and back I asked myself, can I justify this?
I’m still thinking about it……

If you’re a climber, then just look at the air-miles you racked up yourself during the last twelve months; or the number of miles travelling to distant crags or mountains.
Consider for a moment the carbon footprint left by the manufacturers of our expensive toys – ice axes, crampons, karabiners, cams, etc.,

I believe that in the pursuit of adventure, we’re helping to destroy the adventure playground that we love………