Alan Brill joins IAE 2008
15th February, 2008Alan’s initial thoughts on climate change…
I have wanted to find a way for people to take some personal responsibility for doing something about climate change. It doesn’t have to be big. Swapping out the incandescent lights in your house for compact fluorescent isn’t a huge deal, but if done by enough people, it helps. I’m not above having people do the right thing even if they are doing it with an ulterior purpose. While visiting my parents in Florida, I not only changed their bulbs to CFLs, but got several of their neighbors to do so, not so much to save energy or reduce avoidable carbon loads, but because they are guaranteed to last for years (which is more than I can say for some of the neighbors.) I also helped our neighbor switch his holiday light display from the little incandescent bulbs to LEDs, which combined both a more beautiful display and reduced energy consumption by more than 90%.That’s all good, but I hope I can use my experience and skills in adult/lifelong education to provide a vehicle for getting the word out about climate change and what we can each do, both as individuals and through our political systems, to begin changing things. One of the things that Admiral Hopper taught me is that when a warship is steaming full speed ahead, it takes a while for it to turn or to stop, but that the key is getting the turn started. I’m hoping for some insight and guidance during our trip so that I can make that training happen.
Alan Love your verve and zest for information. Also please determine why there have been so many cycles over millions of years on the planet for global warming and freezing. Hannibal crossed the Alps with no ice snow or glaciers as I recall. Could we be heading for another cycle of this pattern?? inasmuch as our lives onearth are very short compared to info on global warming cycle of facts is that possible over the next hundreds of years?
Posted by Tom Cash on 03/17/08, 3:37 pm