Is anyone out there NOT concerned about global warming at this point? Today the white stuff finally hit the roads in Toronto! It was a morning of traffic chaos, fender benders and delays. To be honest, I felt relief and gratitude! At long last, some semblance of winter here in my home town.

Can we all agree now that global warming is a reality? The knowledge that our climate is rapidly and radically… changing brings a small, cold knot of fear into my stomach. What is the legacy we’re leaving to our children environmentally? We continued a family tradition of ringing in the New Year at my parent’s home on Georgian Bay. We greeted 2006 by toasting with champagne and candlelight right down on the beach in a large, partial igloo my creative brother-in-law carved out of the ice and snow. We witnessed 2007’s arrival with bare beaches, an open lake and children romping around in sweaters, instead of parkas.

Globally, we’re at a watershed (no pun intended). Let’s use the undeniable changes in our weather pattern as a wake-up call we need to take action. We need to take definitive, widespread action now. Otherwise, it will be too late to reverse the damaging environmental impacts that are now already well in place. Here’s a few steps I recommend to get started:

1. Get Educated
   You don’t need a PhD in environmental science to earn about global warming. Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”, now out on DVD, is an excellent first step. Regardless of your personal political affinity, this is a great primer on the issue. It will make you cry, it will make you laugh, and, hopefully, it will light a fire within you to take action. To learn more, visit www.climatecrisis.net. You can calculate how many tons of CO2 your household produces and it’s full of ideas to become more carbon neutral. There are some great books out on the subject as well, so check your local bookstore or library.
2. Become a Green Consumer
   Don’t let the overwhelming immensity of global warming stop you from taking some simple actions in your everyday life. Use low-energy lightbulbs – they’re effective, inexpensive and make a different on our power consumption. Drive less and use public transport or walk, if possible. If you totally rely on your car, consider trading yours in for a hybrid model. I purchased a Toyota Camry Hybrid this past summer. The ride is smooth and peppy with 196 horsepower. I get over 650 km (or 400 miles) on one tank of gas. Plus, it was very reasonably priced! Investigate whether there are any energy suppliers you could choose in your area that get their power from renewable resources. In Toronto, I now get my electricity supplied from BullfrogPower.com, which supplies power to the grid from low-impact hydro and other renewable resources. It costs about $1 more per day, but I decided that was a worthy investment to make on my children’s behalf to build a market demand for non-fossil-fuel based energy.
3. Let’s Talk About it
   Pulling our planet back from a total global meltdown isn’t something we can sit back and expect governments or business will do on our behalf. We, as individuals, must do what we can to start the ball rolling. Consumers have a lot of pull in the marketplace, so let’s use that to create the demand for change. Think globally, act locally. Seriously, we need to make those changes now.

So, will you join me in starting a dialogue? If you’ve got ideas to share, please post a comment on my blog.