I posted a bit ago about the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s mission to educate us all about global warming. He’s been effective, at the very least within my own modest consciousness, for this past Sunday I rallied my family around the TV to watch “Global Warming: What You Need to Know With Tom Brokaw,” which was airing on the Discovery Channel.
It was excruciating to sit through most of the case-making. With every commercial, we’d turn to each other and say, “so when are they gonna talk about what we do about it?”
Yesterday’s TV event for us, was witnessing the tsunami destruction in Indonesia, and it naturally turned our commercial time discussion back to global warming, for notable parts of the Discovery Channel’s special were devoted to how the rising of the oceans’ temperatures significantly contributed to the ferocity of the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004, and Hurricane Katrina’s more recent destruction of New Orleans in August of 2005.
Then, about an hour after the news, the power went out, and our house was bathed in darkness. My son was the first one to make a comment, and he said, “Great idea; this is one way to get us to turn stuff off. Maybe the power company should reintroduce rolling blackouts.”
Far different from the moaning and complaining we’d normally have done about it. It was about 7:30pm here, and it was much darker inside the house than outside. We all moved out to the porch which wraps around our house, instantly struck by how much cooler it was, and enjoyed watching the silence of the neighborhood with our neighbors.
Another hour later, and the power still hadn’t come back on. One by one, without really talking about it, we set about preparing for bed, and one by one, we drifted off. The lights woke me up at about 11:30pm when the power came back on, just long enough for me to turn everything off again and go back to bed.
This morning we all felt well rested, and full of energy, and it was from much more than just the extra sleep.
If you’d like to see it, the Discovery Channel special will air again on July 22nd, there is a video preview here.
I’m no scientist, but I’m not sure how much impact we can have on global warming. There were tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, heat waves, cold waves, ice ages, etc. long before we used fossil fuels. I’m all for better use of our resources, and we should be more responsible and enironmentally conscious, but I am not convinced it will do much to solve El Niño, or prevent another big weather disaster.
Also, since you mentioned Katrina…
Having lived through several-day power outage following hurricanes in Louisiana, I think it’d be a lot more bearable to have no power in Hawai’i than along the Gulf Coast this time of year!
One thing I remember after hurricanes is just how *still* the air is for a few days. Couple that with 95 degree temperatures and many square miles of evaporating water, and it feels like a 24/7 hot bathroom after a shower. And, if you’re lucky, it gets down to 88 at night (and no fans).
I agree about the calming effect of silence, but I’d rather go camping in the mountains. ;^)
No argument with you at all Dwayne, on how lucky we are to be in Hawaii! Our power outage was nothing but a very small, very minor inconvenience.
I stumbled across your blog while I was doing some online research. I’d personally prefer that the power company NOT reintroduce rolling blackouts! Not when that means I can’t be on my PC!
Aloha Bill (aka panasianbiz? I clicked into your site to get your name), thank you for taking the time to leave me a comment.
I hear you; when the power first went out I was very thankful for my laptop’s battery pack so I could save the work I had in progress!
Rosa