Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Starting with the #3 song at the top of the Billboard chart right now, "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons, climate change is on the very forefront of my mind. It should be on the forefront of everyone's mind any time they breathe in air. 

Recently, I heard about the California coast having a ban on offshore drilling since the 1969 oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast which ranks 3rd largest in American history after the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 & the 1989 Exxon Valdez disasters and is said to have attributed to the start of the Environmental Movement. The California offshore drills still standing are grandfathered in.

Offshore Fracking is now in the news for the California coast.

On-shore Fracking diagram.

I first head of this method for extracting Oil on the Jimmy Fallon show with Yoko Ono & Sean Lennon singing 'Don't Frack My Mother'. It surprises me that the 2 conversations I had with adult acquantances in the last 2 days had no concept or clue of what I was talking about. It helps our consumption of oil but does not help our environment. Taking too much of anything can be a very bad thing.

Today, on NPR, I was listening to a report regarding the Fukushima Power Plant which has been spewing radioactive contaminated water which leaked tons of water from their storage tank which is now in the Pacific Ocean. New York Times -Japanese Power plant

Now I am not one who has been convinced of environmental issues because others say I should be or that it is something you can believe in or not. I was a believer in the 3rd grade when I wrote my report on the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest. The impact it has on its native peoples, environmental destruction it has for the native species and animals as well as the destruction of trees depleting oxygen levels in that remote part of the world. This I learned at the age of 7. 

I was further educated with the banning of CFCs -chlorofluorocarbons- because of their destructive makeup which helped create a hole in our Ozone layer. Then, or somewhere around the same time, Recycling was taking the stage in my hometown which was way ahead of the curve. Going on to College, my first degree of choice was in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. The first subject tackled was Global Warming as a scientific fact not a belief.

CFCs- Hairspray of choice for the 1980's

A report was leaked today on the study of human environmental impact with Anne Curry reporting Carbon Dioxide Emissions directly impact the heating of our atmosphere caused by humans, specifically.

It's easy to be apathetic and ignorance is bliss. However, the environment won't be the problem of the living people today but after we are gone. I'm not a dramatist of our environmental issues but find it to be quite unhealthy to spread any non-caring attitude to the problem. Just like anything, face the challenges and conquer them.