The 11th Hour of Hope

"If we were logical, the future would be bleak indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope" Jacques Y Cousteau

I`ve just seen Dicaprio`s film the 11th Hour and I`ve got to ponder my faith in our carbon crazy civilization. The movie is a little too much like talking heads but is still fascinating in its scope. I`d defintely recommend "An Inconvenient Truth before this but? if you have the time (and time is all we have), this is a thought provoking encounter with some of the great minds in science and their plea for the future. A future where they would intelligently redesign our carbon puking economy.

Here I am planning my next trip or is that carbon footprint (diving in Maui on route to Thailand). And I rationalize the value of travel while wondering about a future that sees 8.2 billion people on earth by 2030. Wiill the Chinese will burn more coal and India will crave more electricity? Of course! They are becoming us and they are liking it, which is no big surprise? But this is feeling likecasino capitalism and its not hard to fear our future or the fracking mess Gaia endures if we continue to roll the dice.

David Suzuki says that 99.9999% of species in planetary history no longer exist.That leaves us, being at the very top of the food chain, very vulnerable to extinction. And the movieshows us how rapid "climate change" drives extinction. But as Paul Hawken says this is a fantastic opportunity for our generation. The last and best hope for an eco-civilization. We can save this planet if we try? And as a Native Sage suggests at movie`s end: "This planet has all the time in the world, but do we?" This is really about saving ourselves not the planet.

The beauty of Hawaii and Thailand will still be here long after we are gone but who will hear the tree if it falls in the forest? Me, I`m crazy with hope and I`m buying my carbon offsets, driving slower and supporting Bullfrog (clean) power. Its not much but I`m trying. And trying is the very least that I can do? Hopefully the brainiacs running the U.S., China and India will buy into a green revolution or? Otherwise the future is ringing and nobody is home! The 11th Hour?