Surviving The Fall, 50

I am trying to see the future of our planet through the eyes and experience of people much younger than me. I was visiting with a couple from Colombia yesterday and they are both at least thirty years younger than me. In our conversation we were touching, among other things, on fossil fuels and global warming and I mentioned that when I am ready to die, things will be likely getting really bad, but that my friends and others of their recent vintage are going to have to live through it. and they are inheriting an earth that my generation has damaged, just as we have inherited from our parents and grandparents the damage that they had inflicted and the toxic beat goes on. I read most of an article in the weekend Globe and Mail about why it is such a difficult and long process to switch from fossil fuels, and how the planet might not have enough grace time to sustain this lengthy process. What the writer failed to mention is that we are also going to have to accept certain sacrifices and cut back on our consumption....of everything!....if we expect to survive the transition. Some of us really do make an effort. I am one of those people. I do not drive a car. I don't eat meat. I don't use single use plastic bags for shopping, and I have found that even by using plastic bags from frozen vegetables and other products for garbage disposal, I still must have at least a five year supply of plastic bags under my kitchen sink and plastic, as we all know, does not break down. Plastic is forever. En cafes I will only order beverages in glasses or ceramic cups, even iced beverages, because it has been noted that in my moderately sized city of Vancouver, alone, 2.6 million paper disposable coffee cups end up in the landfill every week. My record is not flawless. Even though I rely on public transit, some of the buses are diesel powered. I also fly every year and plane exhaust is a particularly notorious and noxious contaminant. When I observe the behaviour of those around me, I am not exactly inspired with hope. Our roads are still choked with polluting motor traffic, and we even have one conservative candidate for mayor promising to dismantle some of the bike lanes in this city! I have also noticed that the mast majority of people are not going to stop eating meat. In the grocery check out almost everyone still opts for single use plastic bags. And no one in the coffee shops seems interested in following my example of asking for reusable washable beverage containers. Depressing? Sometimes. Are we on a countdown? Yes. Is this getting desperate? I think that the vengeance of Gaia is going to have to become so undeniable and so deadly to our survival and comfort that we will see that there is no option but to change our habits. By then it could be too late. I think we really have to start getting our heads out of our backsides and learn that democracy is not simply a right, but it is also a privilege, as is this incredible earth that we live on, as is the fact that we get to live here. Life itself is a gift. We are starting to wake up, but we need to wake up faster. Time is running out.