Blog Action Day Climate Change

The world without ice? There's a new book asking us to imagine it. Today is Blog Action Day on Climate Change. 7,000 bloggers around the world are writing about global warming today. I'm one of them.

October 24th is global action day when people all over the world are taking action on global climate warming issues. Write a letter. Park your car. Take a bus. Make it a habit.

Think global climate change isn't your problem? Check this out.

Think there's nothing you can do?

Yes, you can.

A few thoughts:

Eat fewer corn chips and don't buy stuff with high fructose corn syrup. Scientific American tells us, "Corn grown in the U.S. requires barrels of oil for the fertilizer to grow it and the diesel fuel to harvest and transport it."

Eat less meat, or possibly none at all. Start small, give up a little beef. Beef requires tons of corn to grow, see above.

My neighbor, Wan-ru, is showing me how to eat more rice, more ways. When she adds meat, it's in small pieces. I now make "green bean soup" from dried beans--a healthful meal that's filling, nutritious, low fat and easy on the environment. And it doesn't give me gas! Ben and I already eat lots of noodles, and we can do even better.

Turn off the lights when you leave a room. Wear a sweater. (Thank you, Jimmy Carter, for these lessons we have forgotten.)

Drive less. Shop with a neighbor to combine trips and have more fun.

Buy less stuff. This is s tough one for me, but I am trying.

Remember, a world without ice also means no pinot noir, as the thin-skinned grapes that give it its luscious flavor are already "baking away" in the best Oregon vineyards.

And, since wine makes mummy clever, this would be a big loss.

Benjamin becomes a writer

Benjamin has a writing workshop each day in his class. He is beginning not just to tell stories, which he has been doing for about a year: now he wants me to write the story he dictates.

Here is tonight's endeavor. After making sharks with play dough, he wanted to write this story.

About Fish

Sharks have teeth. Sharks eat fish. Sharks eat snakes. Sharks swim. Sharks leave all the time. Sharks go to their family. Sharks play together and wrestle. Sometimes they be alone by themselves. When sharks be alone, sometimes they be worried about fish. When they show up together, sometimes they lose their teeth, sometimes they get bigger teeth when they have grown.

Some sharks don’t have teeth because they just bite hard. When they do something, somebody catch fish, sometimes the sharks are the first ones there.

When they get some fish they play together, when they don’t like fish they open their mouth and take them out. When they play together and when they eat snakes, they are together. When they play together, they are responsible.

The Force

The pull away is almost as strong as the pull toward.

We walked to school this morning, the end of Ben’s second week as a kindergartner. At the top of the hill, he met up with a neighbor and friend, and said he wanted to walk in alone. I fell back a bit.

Ben spun around. “No, Mom, I can walk alone. I want to walk alone.”

“OK,” said I, “I’ll just walk behind to make sure you get to your room.”

“You do NOT need to make sure I get to my room. I know where my room is.”

“OK, I know you do. Do I get a little hug?”

A serious eye roll with hand on hip followed. Then he ran back to me and gave me a huge hug.

“Maybe you could walk with me and say hello to my teacher?” he asked.

Of course I obliged.