Lifestyle

One of my coworkers sent me this article, which is very depressing. I hadn't read very much about the tornados, and hadn't heard anything about half of this stuff. After Katrina, I was very wary of climate change discussions targetting specific weather events, since it was primarily the trajectory of Katrina, rather than the strength, that made it so devestating. Most of the news stories focused on the loss of life and property, and perhaps rightfully so; however, this is not entirely conducive to scientific discussion. Nor am I necessarily inclined to believe doomsayers on the Internet with no credentials, however eloquent their arguments may be.

We continued talking about this during lunch that day, and he'd mentioned that there were more tornados in the April 2011 than any other month on record. (I later checked, and it's worse than that - it more than doubled the previous record, 687 to 267, with the Super Outbreak alone constituting about 327.) I e-mailed my brother-in-law (a meteorologist) about this to get his take; I haven't heard back yet. To me, this sounds like pretty compelling evidence that something is up with our weather.

The lunch special that day was steak. I was not totally unaware of the irony of eating steak while discussing what would happen to Floridian refugees if the oceans rise as much as they're projecting, but this time a more direct thought crossed my mind: how many people have died to support my lifestyle?

This was a scary question, but it hasn't gone away since I first asked it. I've generally felt pretty smug about my environmentalism. I drive a small car. I put in Energy Star windows and doors on my house. My house goes down to 58 degrees at night in the winter, and we don't use air conditioning in the summer. Yet, on an absolute scale, my family and I live better than some kings did for millenia in terms of material wealth and conveniences. Even compared to most of the world, our meager by American standards lifestyle is downright lavish. I've always thought of myself as living fairly simply, but taking a hard look at my life, I really don't.

I am aware that the issue is bigger than my lifestyle decisions. From what I've read, it's bigger even than the U.S. My point is that I haven't cut deeply enough from what I've come to take for granted as things I should have. And, I suspect, neither have most of us, if we're honest with ourselves.