Footprints

Summer in the County. We’ve got great beaches and beautiful vistas, wonderful heritage sites and delicious farm stands. When we can’t stand that anymore, we’ve got a drive-in, beautiful parks, trails, arts and cultural events and restaurants. There’s a veritable holiday heaven all around us. If I were I kid, I would love this weather, but I’m not, and like a lot of other folks I’m looking “heaven”ward and secretly saying a little wee prayer for rain. My lawn is now a crispy, crunchy brown colour and has the feel of potato chips underfoot. If you’ve had children, or child-like people in your home, you know the feeling. As some of us nudge the dial a bit on our air conditioners and fans, are we giving any thought to what the heck this weather is all about? Summer hasn’t been this hot since 1955—I sorta remember spending many an afternoon in the cool of the basement that year, drinking Freshie, roller-skating on the concrete floor, laughing at the sparks from metal on concrete and bouncing back and forth between two davenports. Occasionally my mom would shout, “Keep it down or you’ll have to go outside.”

So, here we are, 2012 and maybe we’re staring global warming in the kisser? It’s looking like it’s a possibility. I’ve heard from both sides of the debate on the environment and since I’m not a scientist I rely on those “likely suspects” to give me the straight goods on what’s happening out there. I’ve been known to listen to the “they saids” to give me the lowdown the ozone, the ice cap, the heat and the wind. If a respected, scholarly type or a not-for-profit organization, not sponsored by BP or Enbridge, tells me to reduce my water consumption, then I’m the water meter gal. Right now, our laundry gets done on an “as needed basis” and with a runner/cyclist and a gym-goer/cyclist in the house, “as needed” is often defined by aroma. If I had a way to catch the “grey water” then I’d be watering my crusty lawn with wash water. Our guests (we’ve got ‘em) are encouraged to use their towels more than once and are pointed in the general direction of the house rules as regards apple cores, potato peels, coffee grounds and tea leaves. We try to enforce the Girl Guide Camp rule of toilet flushing although our guests are a bit queasy about “if it’s brown flush it down, if it’s yellow let it mellow.” Our little red kitchen timer is now the little red shower timer. Three minutes, start to finish, hang your towel on the line when you’re done. I don’t miss the time in the kitchen because, let’s face it, who’s going to use the oven if the humidex is consistently over 38 degrees?

Heck, the day David Suzuki told me to decrease my carbon footprint, the carbon diet was put on our menu. Like a lot of worried folks, we compost all of our organic leftovers and have learned to deal, organically, with the itsy-bitsy flies who appear when the peel-pail on the counter is full. We rarely use plastic shopping bags and have been known to carry groceries home, sans bags, when we’ve forgotten to bring the reusables along. We walk more than we drive. The money we spend having our bicycles tuned up almost exceeds the amount we’ve had to spend on our car. We recycle more than we trash. We’ve replaced all of our light bulbs; ironically, the old ones aren’t any more recyclable than the new ones. Our water heater has been turned down a few degrees. In this summer of hot, hot, hot, our air conditioner has only been turned on long enough to find out it’s in working order.

We’ve done our part and I’m sure many of you have done the same. Short of having a solar panel on the roof (we aren’t sure our old house could handle a panel on the roof), we’ve played by most of the rules. They’ve wagged their fingers at individuals, small businesses and families to reduce, reuse and recycle. But, Mr. Harper and Company, there are a whole lot of frightened citizens out here wondering about big corporations who buy their way out of the hard work of planning a clean, clear future. Let’s stop pretending that carbon credits are the answer. Save your gold stars for the day you say “no” to another pipeline mistake and “that’s enough” as regards the oil sands and make the big kids substantiate their claims of environmental concern. It must be just about time for the federal government to grow a pair (albeit, organically and locally) and do something about their pathetic response to global warming. Pass the fan, please.

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca