And now for something ridiculously long

Well, I’m not dead or disowned, so that’s a positive way to start. My family is a mixed bag to say the least, so I thought it would be best, and shift the focus away from me (I’m quite shy and there is only so much blushing one can do safely before
your face falls off) if I made everyone participate. I asked in a very broad, very politic manner, what does everyone think about global climate change?

My grandmother, a steadfast republican and sole funder of the McCain campaign, said that she thought that climate change was happening, and there was nothing we could do about it because everyone was too stuck in their ways. Then she began to talk about the Book of Revelations and Armageddon.

My uncle, a lawyer, farmer, and conservationist, thought that it was all very anthropocentric and that we could probably do no lasting damage to the planet, though we could damage ourselves. He also thought that if there was going to be change then it had to be systemic, that it had to come from the government.

My male cousin in high school said that he thought it was real, caused by humans, and was frustrated by our inaction. He wondered why we had not done more, using solar, wind, and hydropower.

My other male cousin, in middle school, said he thought it was a serious problem, but that most of the people his own age just ignored it. He said it was easy because there is no obvious change yet in NH (if you are not carefully observing or involved in agriculture. Our area of NH has shifted from growing zone 4, a colder zone, to 5, a warmer zone, since my family moved here in the seventies).

My mom, a lifelong environmentalist, gardener, and office manager, thought that the change had to be systemic and that if we did nothing we would have a crisis on our hands. She said that nothing would happen without government intervention.

My godfather, a botanist and loan officer said that this was the same thing which they had been dealing with since the seventies with my uncle, and that we really had to do something soon. He said that Americans have issues balancing humility with narcissism, and he mentioned the importance of local communities, sustainable energy, and local farming.

My dad, a consultant for the Green Lodging Program for hotels, said that we would put off change until the last possible moment, and at that point we would be forced to change and then reduce national consumption while assisting other nations with their transitions

My other uncle, the director of the Resource Management and Conservation Program at Antioch University of New England, said (because he couldn’t help himself) that he hadn’t thought much of it at all. I then crumpled up the printed copy of the blogging assignment and threw it at him, but I digress. Then he said that in order to effect any change you need communication, and that you need the masses on board.

My uncle’s guest, a Ford Fellow in ecology and public policy from China, said that he believed that it was a serious problem, and that developing countries should not have to go the change alone. He then mentioned the work he was doing on wedges, and how if you took the swath of land 100 miles wide, and from North Dakota to Texas, and covered it with wind mills that it would only cover one seventh of our energy needs.
My uncle’s partner, a special education teacher and administrator, said that she thought there was definitely climate change, but was not sure if all of it was anthropogenic in nature. She also thought we absolutely needed to update our infrastructure

My aunt, an administrator for alumni affairs at Dartmouth College, thought that grassroots change was very important, and that climate change was a real and pressing problem. She thought that the system had to change, even if it meant 4 dollar gas. She thought that people would not change voluntarily.

Because the assignment was to sort of sway opinion, every once in a while I would interject, though often I would have to stand up and yell at everyone just to get their attention. I talked about Maniates, and the trinity of despair, and how really you only need a small group of dedicated individuals to bring about change (at this point my uncle and his guest became excited and talked about the research on hope he was doing, and how Maniates was at the forefront of thought in this area). I talked about Obama and his green jobs program and how he would probably be improving infrastructure through that, and hopefully would also put in light rail systems. I said that it was true that Americans were ridiculously short sighted, that on the Hofstede scale of short-term orientation we were quite bad. I also agreed with Wenjun that it was important for the United States to not just expect developing nations to fall in line, and mentioned what my IR research professor said about how the sort of institutions in existence influence the kinds of actions that are taken. I then mentioned my idea for a new international institution which was solely for the environment and which would fund developing nations so that they did not make the same mistakes as the developed world. At some point I also mentioned that even though people are short-sighted, that they would probably be less so if they knew that we had a time line of about five to seven years to get with the program.

All in all it wasn't bad, and required minimal imbibing (apple juice of course).