A Mother's Day for our Future

Abhaya Thiele: A Mother's Day for our Future

By ABHAYA THIELE
Special to The Sun
Published: Monday, May 19, 2008 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, May 18, 2008 at 5:06 p.m.

In honor of Mother's Day, people from all around Gainesville came together to show that they want to ensure that our children have a safe future.

Right now, global climate change is accelerating at a pace that is going even beyond the projections of the world-leading scientists. And, it's our children who are going to pay the price. And, I do mean our children - those right here in our own community.

We tend to think of climate change in terms of its impact on faraway places, but we need to start thinking of how it will affect us here in Gainesville.

Scientists project increasing numbers of Category 5 hurricanes; more extreme weather coming in the form of severe droughts and extreme precipitation events; continued sea-level rise bringing new levels of salt intrusion into coastal ecosystems and aquifers. Certainly, every part of the population and every sector of the economy will be impacted by these changes.

The emissions of carbon dioxide that have already been released into the atmosphere can't be undone, nor can the impacts from them. However, what we can do is to ensure that, as quickly as possible, we immediately level off emissions nationwide and then reduce them significantly. Only then will we avert the most disastrous of climate change impacts.

This Mother's Day, as part of a nationwide event, children and adults all around the country, including Gainesville, came together to create a set of murals depicting what is most precious in our lives and what we want protected from the impacts of climate change.

The murals that we made here will be sent to Washington, D.C., where they will be displayed as part of a national "Climate Quilt" composed of murals made in 350 art events all across America.

Each individual piece of art subsequently will be taken to the office of the congressional representative of the area that made the piece - to ensure, literally, that Congress "gets the picture" that constituents want national legislation supporting clean energy solutions to global warming.

Even though climate change is an enormous challenge, our event was full of hope. We truly believe that our country can reverse the present trajectory of global warming by shifting to renewable forms of energy production such as solar and wind power, along with the use of energy efficiency measures in all areas of the economy.

May our children one day look back on this time with pride, and say that we responded well to the challenges we faced.

Abhaya Thiele is Florida federal organizer for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes responsible energy choices to solve global warming problems and ensure clean, safe and healthy communities throughout the southeast. She lives in McIntosh.