We can tackle the Big with a lot of Small

How much in our world should we be paying better attention to than we do? Things that at first take, we consider to be too big for the me-ness of leaving personal legacies we are usually engaged in, but at second take, could make our personal legacies a moot point?

Things like, the “impending certainty” of the next pandemic”• is it the bird flu?

Or global warming. In that regard, Al Gore has certainly affected film critic Robert Ebert.

In his review of An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary in which Al Gore delivers the troubling information about global warming and its consequences, Ebert starts by writing,

“I want to write this review so that every reader will begin it and finish it.”

He ends with,

“In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.”

At the end of his review, he does offer some solutions that are very doable;

“What can we do? Switch to and encourage the development of alternative energy sources: Solar, wind, tidal, and, yes, nuclear. Move quickly toward hybrid and electric cars. Pour money into public transit, and subsidize the fares. Save energy in our houses. I did a funny thing when I came home after seeing ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ I went around the house turning off the lights.”

In the language of Hawai‘i and of Managing with Aloha, we call this Mālama ‘Ä€ina, and the stewardship of the earth which is our home, and which nurtures the sense of place captured in our spirit of aloha. We do have to pay attention.

Here’s the link to the Ebert Review: An Inconvenient Truth.

Somewhat related post… Dwayne tried to get us to pay attention too: His post on Genuine Curiosity a bit back was called, One flu away from a cuckoo’s nest? and mentioned the Gartner’s Research advisory, “G00136943: Prepare Now for a Coming Avian Flu Pandemic.”