Talk About Inconvenience...

The truth about global warming is not convenient. What may not be convenient about it now is that our actions over the past 30+ years have put us in the current predicament, and we do not want to face consequences that we have set up for ourselves. The truth about the current global warming situation may be inconvenient, but only because the truth is inconvenient to swallow. After the truth is digested, we must then scramble to try and reverse the damage. Our retributions paid to the environment will be inconvenient.

What people may not know is that the minor inconveniences that we may suffer on the home front now may save us from some severe inconveniences in the future. It may be inconvenient now to pay a little more in their energy bill for wind energy, or to install photovoltaic cells on their roof. Those inconveniences do not compare to what may come in the future, when summers are hotter as a result of global warming, and you have to use more electricity to cool your house, at the unpredictable utility costs of the future. It may be inconvenient to trade in the SUV for a hybrid car to drive to your job in the city. Compare that to the possibility of unhealthy air quality in the same cities in the future. What may seem like a big inconvenience today will look like a big blunder in hindsight.

What else may be inconvenient for me is to sell my snowboard equipment, if snowfall is lost in the Northeast. It will be even harder to tell my children about the great snow-related activities that you could once do. It would be even harder to tell them why we cannot enjoy the snow any longer. However, I would be able to tell them that it was not for my lack of trying.

What simple changes that seem inconvenient today will compound in the future, making it even more difficult to answer to our actions (or inactions).