Still time to create a better world

The Artdog Quote-Pairing of the Week 

Enough naysayers persist in positions of power to dangerously impede efforts to mitigate climate change. Most insist nothing is wrong with the world. Others claim it's impossible to do anything. 

But "impossible" is what the unimaginative tend to call the problem we haven't yet solved.

One of the most useful things we can do for our future is work hard to vote all of the former out of office. The other thing we must figure out is how to ensure that the second group (the "impossibles") were too pessimistic. God help us all if they're right, but meanwhile it's our responsibility to build a better world.

I kicked off last month with a video about climate change refugees. It featured a call to proactive action. This month, I've been pairing quotes about being proactive in one's life with quotes about climate change. If we resolve there's still time to create a better world, then we also must resolve to try!

IMAGE CREDITS: Many thanks to Faster-To-Master's "Growth-mindset quotes" page, for the quote from Audrey Hepburn. I also appreciate the two sources I accessed to create the Phil Harding quote-image. They are Phil Harding's own website, which provided the quote (Ref. 91f), and AliExpress, which provided the cool view of a bamboo forest looking straight up.

We have to try

The Artdog Quote-Pairing of the Week

The task is immense. The stakes couldn't be higher. Our rainforests have often been called the "lungs of the Earth." But they're disappearing in literal clouds of smoke. Or in caravans of logging trucks. Or they're being mined, unsustainably replaced, dried out, and otherwise destroyed at a truly devastating rate. It won't be easy to reverse that trend, but we have to try.

Rainforests, like coral reefs, are extremely valuable to our planet's survival. There are things we can do to help save them. But we must do them now!

I kicked off last month with a video about climate change refugees. It featured a call to proactive action. This month, I'm pairing quotes about being proactive in one's life with quotes about climate change. It's not too late to mitigate the effects--we must resolve to try!

IMAGE CREDITS: Many thanks to Faster-To-Master's "Growth-mindset quotes" page, for the quote from Theodore Roosevelt, and to The World Counts, for the informational graphic about rainforest loss. 

Apocalyptic vision?

The Artdog Image of Interest 

We don't have to suffer all the disasters to discover we must run for our lives. It only takes one. But in this week's Image of interest Sean McCabe's illustration (originally created for Rolling Stone) evokes a range of them to emphasize his point. Climate change not only is real, but it's displacing more and more of us.

ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Many, many thanks to Sean McCabe and Rolling Stone, for this apocalyptic evocation of the devastation that can lead to displacement of climate refugees.

Time for solar dreams

The Artdog Image of Interest 

"I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy, what a source of power. I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out, before we tackle that." Thomas Edison said it in 1931. Me too, Tom!

This image is a photo montage I put together. It was inspired by the quote from Thomas Edison. It is surrounded by photos of current solar technology. One of my blogging themes this month is a proactive approach to climate change.

But you don't have to look very hard or stretch your imagination to realize that the time for solar dreams is right now. As the Motley Fool points out, the solar industry has come into its own. The time for solar dreams of a cleaner-energy future are now.

We have only to embrace it.

IMAGE CREDITS: This montage was inspired by the photo and quote from Thomas Edison that I found on the Edie website (unfortunately, it was pretty small). I surrounded it with photos of contemporary solar panels from (clockwise from upper left): The Motley Fool, BusinessGreen,  American Solar Energy Society, and GreenTechMedia. Many thanks to all!

In your future, too?

The Artdog Quote of the Week

The more I think about this week's quote, the more truth I see in it. This month I'm focusing some of my posts on climate change migration and climate change refugees, because it is a growing phenomenon.

My fellow Americans tend to think of refugees as "other people." But if you're a Puerto Rican, or a former resident of Paradise, California, I bet it doesn't feel so remote. Many communities in Alaska also are feeling the effects, but if you're a Hurricane Katrina refugee, this is already an all-too-familiar story.

This issue isn't going away, it's growing. Proactive planning is by far the best response, but we're not getting enough of that from most local, state, or federal agencies--although a few (too few) corporations are waking up to the problem. This is an issue right here (no matter where "here" is for you) and right now.

From flooding and devastation in Puerto Rico to burnt remains in Paradise, CA, there's too much destruction on US soil for Americans to turn a blind eye to climate refugees.

If you haven't already started, this might be a great time to write, call or email your representatives, government officials, and others. If you live in a representative democracy, you have the right! Show up at town halls. Demonstrate if needed. Make your voice heard, and remember performance records when you vote. We're all in the bullseye, for this one.

IMAGE CREDITS: Many thanks to AZ Quotes for the illustrated quote from Vivienne Westwood. The other image is a composite of two news photos. On the left is a view of a flooded Puerto Rican town in the wake of Hurricane Maria, courtesy of The Daily Egyptian, photo by Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS. On the left is a view of destruction in Paradise, CA after the Camp Fire in 2018, from Insurance Journal (no photographer credited).

Opportunity now, crisis later. How will we choose?

The Artdog Video of Interest

This week's Video of Interest kicks off a theme I want to explore this month: migration sparked by climate change. This is one of the most recent short videos on the subject that I could find, and I especially appreciate its approach.

Sponsored by the World Bank, it frames what many see as a problem differently. Countries can take steps now, the video argues, to turn it from a looming crisis to an opportunity.



What are the steps? The first one's kind of a given: cut greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible to mitigate the effects of climate change. All of us should be doing more toward that goal, individually and in our communities, organizations, and institutions.

The second step should also be an "of course we should" idea, but I rarely see it in my country, where too many powerful elites have too much investment in denying climate change or the need to do anything about it. This step says we should acknowledge that climate migration will naturally happen. Then use that knowledge to plan ahead for when it does. Unfortunately for the USA, some places have banned government officials from even using the words.

The third step also would be hard to do in any state that bans even so much as using the vocabulary. It calls for investing to improve data collection, so more accurate predictions are possible. This is simple common sense, but as many have noted, common sense is not so common. Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen in much the USA anytime soon, either.

VIDEO CREDIT: Many thanks to the World Bank for its hope-inspiring video on this topic.