Blog Action Day 2009

‘Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.’

Sunflower

This year’s topic for is climate change.  Whether you believe that these changes are occuring through a natural process, or that human beings with large carbon footprints are to blame, the fact is that there are changes happening worldwide.  Some places are getting colder, some hotter, some are experiencing drought, some floods and rising sea levels.  Mankind is fairly adaptable; we evolved and survived in and out of Africa, through ice ages and receding glacial periods, in all types of climates. We’ll probably manage to adapt ourselves during these changes as well.

Castor Bean

But other members of our global family are not so adaptable.  Animals are mobile and unless their environment is highly specialized (like polar bears in Alaska), they can move and adapt themselves to a new area.  Domestic animals can be moved by their caretakers to areas that are more conducive to their existence.  I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t worry about the animals if the climate keeps changing, they are not nearly so “moveable” and adaptable as humans, and many species will be lost.  Plants and trees and other flora can also move themselves, there is already evidence that some species are in the process of doing so.  But they are much slower movers, they require generations to move and to adapt themselves, therefore many are in a race against time.  So the real losers in the climate change game may be the flora, the plant life of the Earth.  And if they lose, then it won’t matter how mobile or how adaptable or even how smart we humans are, we’ll lose too.  Because as our food supply goes, so go the animals and the homo saps that depend on it.

Flying Fauna

Over our agricultural history, farmers have increasingly focused on a lesser and lesser number and variety of plants, resulting in mono-culture crops.  This means vast fields of soybeans, corn, etc., that are specifically bred to an area and genetically modified in ways that vitually insure that the plant cannot adapt itself to a changing climate.  Some can’t even reproduce themselves.  Many older plant species have already been lost, partly because of the focus on mono-crops, and so we don’t have access to seeds or cultivars that may have been more suitable for the world we will find ourselves living in, in the not too distant future. 

Poona Kheera cucumber

What can we do?  Reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and reduce our carbon footprints.  Learn to live with less, to be happy with enough.  Plant gardens, grow food, stop using chemicals on the land, in our homes and on our bodies.  Honor our Mother Earth and all her children, human, flora and fauna.  You’ll find many ideas, suggestions and guidelines all over the web today, on Blog Action Day.