Finally watched AIT last night....

[LynzM]

Damn.

:scared:

I'm one of those people Gore talked about who goes straight to "Oh my god this is too damn big and impossible." Scary and overwhelming... kinda pushes the whole "what's the point of anything, really?" that goes on in my head sometimes. Depressing, and scary, and .... god, the whole world is going to go upside-down, and soon. I'm a believer. It makes everything else just seem... trivial, even the other stuff I'd normally get worked up about, politically.

If you watched it, and feel like this, what have you done to cope? What have you changed in your day-to-day life and how you interact with the world??

[BonnieJW]

1. I found AIT to be very instructive.

There are so many things you can do that will add up. Change your lightbulbs to fluorescent. Start unplugging appliances that aren't being used. Contribute to American Forests; they plant a tree for every dollar you send them.

[GliderGuider]

2. What I've done is called a personal powerdown

Three years ago I sold a 3500 square foot, triple-garage suburban McMansion and moved to a 1600 square foot urban bungalow (without even a garage). Last summer I traded in my BMW 540i/6 on a 2001 VW Jetta TDI that I fuel with biodiesel. I now take the bus to work every day instead of driving, so my annual automobile mileage is about a quarter of what it was. Every light in my home that is not on a dimmer is a compact fluorescent. We have turned all our flower beds into vegetable gardens which we water from rain barrels. I have changed my electricity supplier from the standard nuke and gas supplier to a green energy cooperative whose generating capacity produces no GHGs whatsoever. I keep the thermostat up three degrees in summer and down three in the winter. I don't fertilize my lawn and I mow it with a reel push mower. I eat less meat, and buy local produce. I'm planning on donating half my lawn to the vegetable garden effort next year (more food, less mowing).

I've also gotten involved in politics at all levels (national, provincial and municipal) to support and encourage environmental and oil depletion policy.

Yes, the message in AIT is frightening. It becomes all the more so when you realize that this crisis is converging with oil depletion, food depletion and global financial instability, all in the same time frame. I've found one remedy for the fear and panic, though. Take your eyes off the big picture, and focus on a smaller scale - individuals, families and communities.

I have an acronym I use to give people an idea of what they should do. The acronym is HELP. It stands for:

Humanize: Form closer ties with others.
Economize: Conserve wherever possible.
Localize: Reduce travel for food, work, leisure.
Produce: Some of your own food and energy.

In short, don't worry about solving the whole problem. You can't. Concentrate on solving your own personal corner of it. Even if nothing bad ever comes to pass (and calamity is by no means certain), you will end up with a life that's cheaper, simpler, more honest, more caring, and more satisfying.

[LynzM]

3. Good ideas....

Those make me feel a little better; we've done several of them already.

-we live in a 900 sf bottom half of a duplex, no garage
-Briarius drives a TDI, I am planning to get a more fuel-efficient car next time it's financially feasible
-about 1/3 of our lights have been changed over to CF, I will make that a priority
-trying hard to turn off lights and computers when not in use
-no gardening yet...
-definitely eating WAY less meat, and buying organic/local produce when possible
-I should look into our electricity supplier for green-ness!
-mow the lawn with a push mower, old-school!

Now, to get more people to do more....!