Counting questions

This is an example of when all my worlds come together. I got up early to swim this morning, so I was tired mid-day. When my almost 3 year old daughter went down for a nap around 1, so did I. But first I turned on the TV -- just for a little bit. I ended up getting sucked in to watching CSPAN because Thomas Friedman of the NY Times was interviewing Al Gore and Bono at the World Economic Forum.

Two interesting points.

One, Gore cited a study just released by the League of Conservation Voters that counted all major debate and interview questions asked of the US presidential candidates in 2007. Over 2,900 questions were asked, but only 25 mentioned the climate crisis and only 6 specifically referenced global warming. Not many more than the 3 that were asked about UFOs. Here's the link: http://www.whataretheywaitingfor.com/facts.html

Two, a question posed to Bono got me thinking. Friedman asked if in his travels, has he seen countries hit by these three things: ravaged by the climate crisis, facing extreme poverty, and instability/political crisis? Absolutely. Think about it -- global warming impacts the availability of food (not enough) and water (flooding or drought), leading people to move in search of land or resources, causing stress and strain on communities and countries. I admit, that I had not thought about the interaction of these three major phenomena before. But now it seems painfully obvious.

The downturn in the interview came when they all laughed, saying that they are a few of the only 500 people who are talking about these issues. What? Maybe they are the only ex-Vice President and world famous activitist/musician talking about it on TV. But the rest of us are talking about it too -- in fact, we're talking about it all the time. That's why Leah facilitated a meeting of our local Bike and Pedestrian Task force this morning. And we're doing things on a daily basis. Small steps from taking cloth bags to the store, to teaching our children to save water and grow vegetables. They are pretty arrogant if they think they are in an elite 500 Club of famous people who care.

Anyhow, I'm glad I turned the TV on during my naptime. It also makes me want to ask climate change questions as many times as possible in 2008. Let's get our questions counted.