I finally watched An Inconvenient Truth about a month ago and was shocked into action. I live in America, the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. I use less energy than many Americans I know, but I am certainly a big part of this problem and, therefore, need to be a big part of the solution. I'm very frustrated that our government refuses to join the international community in setting CO2 caps and simply agreeing to work on this as a planetary team. It seems to me that global warming is a problem that needs to be addressed on both an individual and institutional level. So I'm attempting to do what I can in my daily life as well as lobbying the higher-ups to take immediate action.

I went to a lecture at the College of Wooster given by Richard Alley, one of the scientists who helped write the recent IPCC report that seems to have gotten people re-motivated about global warming. There was a question I realized afterwards that I wished I had asked: is there actually the potential to reverse global warming? To stop global warming? Or have we gone so far that it's too late to do anything but try to slow the rate of global warming? I alternate between hope and dismay.

I have a son who's nearly three. I'd like to leave the world in good shape for him.