Mommy’s Groove

I can’t turn on the CBC radio or TV these days without slipping into bone chilling fear. I’m normally very open to listening to whatever their news-based programming is serving up and consider it my daily dose of reality beyond the streets of my lake-side neighbourhood. My Grandma always listened while she worked through her day too. While I’m not sure my kids don’t hear “too much” from the regular drone of the radio, I feel the need to stay connected.

But ever since the Paris conference which announced the scientific consensus about the human causes of global warming, the CBC has been doing their part to educate their audience about every aspect of global warming. Truly, it scares me and I have no idea what to do about it.

I think about the world our kids have been born into: an ever increasing blanket of greenhouse gases warming the climate which will cause environmental shifts we cannot reliably predict. Last night we heard that the beetle which has been eating away at the pines of northern British Columbia has jumped the Rocky Mountains and is heading east across the vast pine forests of Canada. It could be halted by a winter offering 6 weeks of minus 40 degree temperatures — but we’re unlikely to enjoy one of those again with the milder winters recently on record.

Then there was the worry that Canada, and other countries have been so focused on getting agreement on halting greenhouse has emissions that we are failing to shift our behaviours and adapt to the warmer reality. Are we growing the right crops for our current situation? Are we thinking about changing building codes to reflect more volatile storms? Do we have the emergency equipment and personnel in place to deal with natural disasters? What will happen to the variety and availability of food in the next 100 years? Will the nutrients required to grow and live be readily available or will our current cornucopia of food offerings seem gluttonous to our children and grandchildren?

As you can imagine, all this information is creating nothing but fear for the life we have ahead. Will I be 95 years old and looking at food shortages for the first time in my life? Will any changes I make help? How can I change the oil and gas dependency I participate in?

When we get into our car this weekend and drive up to our cottage by the lake, I will be focusing on the blessings spring and Easter bring. We will puddle around the property cleaning up the garden, picking up sticks to burn and watch for our returning feathered friends. I cannot imagine giving up this time with my family - the relaxed smiles, physical activity and exploration are for each of us genuine blessings. We share our love of life with every breath of sharp morning air, we learn to live gently respecting the creatures who live there full-time and we take time to wonder about when the next rainbow will appear or if we’ll have baby loons again this summer. As we unplug, I’ll deep-six my fear for a few more days and focus on the abundant blessings of spring and Easter.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 at 7:54 am and is filed under Consumerism, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.