As many of you have heard, the City and Transition Albany are teaming up to make the Global Work Day 10/10/10, promoted by 350.org (on October 10th), a big splash.
The City will award prizes to the most creative neighborhood project that involves the most people and makes the most difference to our collective carbon footprint either directly or indirectly. (A direct effect could be in reducing miles driven or energy used in the home, for example, whereas an indirect effect would be producing food in your own garden, or cleaning up trash). There are many ideas on the City web page and on 350.org.
Transition Albany is standing by to offer support, whether it’s discussing ideas with your community or helping to make your project a reality.
There are so many ways to approach this, and all of them require …. approaching your neighbors. We’ll be the first to admit that this can seem daunting at first, but we can state from experience that once you’ve had a successful communication with one person, there’s an exhilaration that comes from breaking through a personal barrier and suddenly it’s lots of fun!
Let us help you any way we can. If you need encouragement, contact us and we’ll work out together the best way for you to proceed.
Here are some facts in case you need more motivation.
You’ve probably heard about the terrible flooding in Pakistan that’s covered one fifth of the country and left millions of people homeless. But did you know that similar weather disasters are expected to become more frequent and more damaging because of global climate change? You can get the facts about the link between global warming and extreme weather here: http://acp.repoweramerica.org/extremeweather-taf
The scary thing is that the climate-related disasters we’re seeing today are the result of our fossil fuel consumption 30 years ago, so it seems that even more extreme weather events are inevitable for the next three decades. But everything we do today to reduce our carbon footprint (and thus our impact on the environment) will eventually make a huge difference to the quality of life on earth.
You may say, what’s the use? Watch the story of the hummingbird told by Professor Wangari Maathai, a woman who won a Nobel Prize for planting trees and establishing green belts all over Africa. Imagine your grandchildren asking, “What did you do, Grandma/Grandpa, to help us get out of that terrible time?,” and imagine yourself, looking around at a world breathing a sigh of incredible relief as the global temperature starts to drop again, saying you did everything in your power and then some more.
Remember to send us an email or make a phone call if you would like support or encouragement. The City wants you to register your project by emailing greenalbany@albanyca.org, and registering it on the 350.org website will give it global visibility.
Let’s keep in touch with each other through the Transition Albany Yahoo Group (above), to share successes and challenges and ensure that we fully embrace this opportunity to make a real change. Our efforts today can make all the difference in the world.
