rising waters

Last night, I saw the documentary Rising Waters. It was about imminent disappearance of islands in the South Pacific. As the climate changes, the sea level will rise (melting glaciers & icebergs & warmer water expands). Many island nations in the Pacific rise only a few feet above sea level. They will be underwater in a few years. The film focuses on folks from Samoa, the Marshall Islands, and Kiribati. (which I learned is pronounced Kira-bash - such an uneducated Take Off player I was.) The president of Kiribati says that his government is bothering to invest in infrastructure because they will have to evacuate within a few years - they are losing their aquifers. What's the point of having a new school if no one will be able to live there?

The movie shows delegates from these island states at the Rio, Kyoto, & Bonn environmental summits. They explain to the their fellow diplomats that if the emissions of greenhouse gases does not decrease by 60-80% immediately, their countries will go under (literally). No one hears them. They say that they need to burn fossil fuels so economies will expand, so people will have jobs. And that is more valuable than whole countries, cultures, ways of life that have persisted for thousands of years, unique flora & fauna, etc. etc. etc.

So I am outraged at our arrogance. There is a scene in the movie in which a Samoan climatologist is visiting an American collegue in New York City. He points out that Manhattan is an island. Shouldn't New Yorkers be worried about rising sea levels? He asks. His collegue replies that people don't notice the ocean beside them & that the land is so valuable that people will just keep building higher and higher sea walls. That no one cares enough to build sea walls for Samoa is left unsaid.

And what am I doing about it? not much. I don't drive, so I can feel a bit superior, but I did ask E to pick me up from work on Friday, not wanting to ride in the rain. I am sitting in my heated, well-lighted bedroom typing away on my energy-consuming laptop. I just had some orange juice, which had to be processed and transported hundred of miles to my cold climate. I am complicit in this climate change, like in so many other things that I disagree with. And what am I doing about it? Not much. I don't know if there is a way to reconcile my good intentions with my desire for a comfortable life. I shall try.