La Revanche d'Al Gore?

I opened my copy of Metro, my morning newspaper that I grab as I'm getting off the tram and seen the headline (I apologize in advance for awkward phrasing born of spot-translation) "His Nobel Prize is a repudiation for George Bush: The Revenge of Al Gore." Said article quoted the Washington Post saying that "the inaction on climate change is one of the principal failures [of Bush]. Sadly, there was no european perspective in the article - it was more reporting on the events and attitudes of America.

Personally...I'm thrilled that Gore won the Nobel. I know a lot of people don't buy the whole "global warming" thing, or chalk up the current ecology to part of the natural cycle of the earth. Personally, global warming/climate change/whatever you want to call it isn't the real issue. The real issue is how the actions of people are impacting the environment. I would love to see this start something big. It's impossible for any one person to change the fate of the environment. Sure, Gore did a pretty good job at raising awareness -and controversy. It'd be easy to say that it's because he has money/power/influence that he can change things...but think about it for a minute - he can only plant the ideas. People need to then man up, as Kristen would say, and take responsibility and action.

I've noticed some interesting differences here in France in terms of being environment-friendly. there's the public transportation, for one, though I recognize it's because I'm living in a big city. The constantly changing rolling billboards are another...but there are smaller differences, too. We don't have a dryer in my family -everything is line-dried. But more than that, there's a huge difference in how energy/electricity is used. In the States, we hate darkness. Lights are turned on and left on, even in empty rooms. Tvs are left running to create "background noise," or radios are constantly playing. I feel like here electricity is used when it's needed. Lights are turned on as late in the day as possible, and they're only on if they're being USED. I'm trying to be more conscious about this - maybe I can't save the world, but if I'm more careful about energy use and maybe I can convince one person (who convinces one person who convinces one person who convinces one person...) to be concious...THAT is when change is possible. just...think about it.

Oh and there's something else here that makes my green heart happy. Monoprix, which is sort of like a superTarget, is where a lot of us IES students to go get our groceries. I was so confused the first time I got groceries there...in the states, they bag everything for you as they scan it. Here...they don't bag it for you. In fact, they don't bag it at all! People bring their own (fabric, not plastic) bags to carry home their groceries. I have since found the few bags Monoprix does provide (a great boon for those of us foreigners who didn't bring grocery-toting bags!) -large, heavy-duty plastic bags that are intended to be REUSED. I love it. I absolutely LOVE it.

Today is Blog Action Day. (http://blogactionday.org) Thousands of people all over the world are choosing to use their blogs as a way to create change. I know perfectly well that there are people in the states, in france, in england, in scotland (even in italy!) who are reading this blog. People who know me are well aware that environmentalism is important to me. We are called to be stewards of the earth, to protect it and "live simply, so that others may simply live." When I realized that today was Blog Action Day and that the topic was the environment...how could I not add my voice to the other 15,000+ voices? we live in a time of mass-communication...I'm just glad it's finally being put to good use =D

the weekend, by the way, was amazing. I'm working on going through the 8 pages I wrote in my journal from saturday-sunday and organizing it into a huge post - but I don't think that'll be ready till tuesday or wednesday.

à + - and think green thoughts!