Global Warming and the state of Earth Improvement

I have been looking into global warming a bit lately. It was spawned by the random act of checking out "What's the Worst that Could Happen?" by Greg Craven. He is not an expert, but he plays one in the high school science classes he teaches. He wrote this book to help people think more objectively about, not who is right and wrong, but whether we should take action or not. He is obviously under the opinion that taking massive action immediately is the right way to go. I didn't find his book particularly helpful, but I would agree with one of his thoughts. The truth about what global warming is, how it works, and most of all what it will do to us in the future is not nearly as important as the actions we take or don't take. What I mean is that finding an alternative to using gas in cars is a good thing no matter why you are doing it. Trying to watch and clean what our power plants are spewing into the atmosphere can only be good,  and looking into a variety of types of power sources can only be better for our future. Freaking out and rushing changes onto the likely causes of CO2 emissions may do more harm than good if our alternatives use more energy, or loads of money. 

My first reaction to the whole thing is a natural skepticism. There is money on one side and politics on the other, neither of which I trust, and in some instances those are both on both sides. I also find myself a bit at odds with some environmentalists. I know they mean well most of the time, but my natural bent is to help people, not plants. In this case they would probably say that planting more trees would help us all. From the little research I have done it looks like what would help the most is if everyone in the world would give up their cars, and electricity, and even then it would only be about half of the cut in CO2 we would need to return to pre-warming temperatures. I am not ready pretend the industrial revolution never happened and return to pioneer days yet. 

There are many things about this issue that are very tricky. I have heard that the best way to actively push for the measures we need to combat future global warming is to lobby governent. The slow, plodding, bipartisan government. I know that most of the government is aware of the environmental lobby, and reacts to them when it needs to to maintain their votes, but I worry about the reliability of the outcome. And I personally am not a big fan of bigger government. Ok, so let's take global warming to the personal level. What can I do other than vote and annoy my congress person? It seems that it is hard to move in the right direction without moving in the wrong direction in another area, very likely canceling out the good I did. Like maybe I grow a good bit of my own food, therefore lowering CO2 that would have come from the trucks delivering vegetables to the grocery store, but then I own an SUV. Or maybe I try my best to eat organic, and not eat meat, to help eliminate methane and such, but then I love to take long trips to cool destinations in my car. And then there is me. I try to buy local at the farmers market, which helps reduce CO2 emissions from long deliveries, and I use florescent bulbs, but I shop at Walmart and use plastic bags and disposable diapers. I am sure not helping things. I do try to re-use my Walmart bags for other things, but that really isn't an excuse. I do adopt children rather than put more people on the earth, but I did up the population by three personally. I just can't win. So if all of us are doing things like composting, but yet driving an old car that doesn't have very modern exhaust upgrades, how much are any of us going to help? It sure doesn't seem like it will amount to much, and I think a lot of people who know alot about climate change agree. That is why we come back to government, because power companies aren't going to fix themselves, right. Lately I have been rather scared by the realization of how much the government actually funds in this country. Almost all of science can trace at least part of it's money back to the government, (which, again, I don't trust). So where does that leave us. It seems to me that we have a tangled web that is extremely hard to navigate, and vulnerable to the whim of popular opinion. 

So what about global warming. It does seem to be warming. Are we causing it. Possibly, probably, in part, who knows. I don't. I think we know too little about the long history of the earth to truly be able to fathom what is going on here. What should we do? What we have been doing. Let's try to pollute less. Let's try to make the energy we use more efficient, and develop cleaner sources of it. Let's think outside of the box. I like the oddball ideas I have read about like capturing this excess carbon in the atmosphere and re-useing it for energy. I even read an idea that involved deploying giant mirrors into orbit to deflect some heat from the sun. Sure, these ideas may be crazy and may not work, but they may lead us to ideas and ways of thinking that will. Let's not get hung up on specifics, and not get caught up in angry debates. there are a lot of things that neither side knows for sure. But I think we know enough to be grateful for what we have, and know that we can't just coast along doing whatever we want to our planet and think things will always be fine. I for one will probably keep buying local, and then turning around and buying Walmart. I will vote for the guy that I think represents my views on most issues in general, but I probably won't annoy him for much. Maybe a midwife issue here, an adoption issue there. Things that affect my immediate family, just like most people. I won't give up my car, but I will try not to make extra trips, or long trips if I don't feel I have to. Will government and power companies and car companies do what I need them to do with out my hand at their wheel? I don't know. I don't even know exactly what I would ask them for if I could, because I don't know the difficulties behind making less polluting cars work, and then making them at a price I am willing to pay. Though I would be happy to buy an environmentally friendly mini-van if I could afford it next time. I will just send out my hope, that if we are contributing we can figure out what we can do to help before it is too late. The other thing I realize is that the world was not specifically made to accommodate me. There very likely could come a catastrophe to humans that we didn't cause, or didn't cause completely. We have been very lucky up until this point. The earth has been through many time periods that would not have been so comfortable for us, and may go through more. There is no law saying the universe must be nice to us, unless there is, and that would lead to an entirely different understanding of the universe to debate. 

The Beach

We made our first visit to Topsail, and had a good time. We did the normal beachy things. Collecting shells, getting wet, salty and sandy, and then resting in between, which these days I count as a thing to do on vacation. We got to spend a little time with old friends and make some new ones. Evan and Nina learned how to dig up sand fleas (those weird clawless crab-like things they are holding) from some new friends they met. We met and rescued our first blue bottle (or Portuguese Man of War) jellyfish. And we all had a blast in the tide pools and on the sandbar for the few hours a day it was available. Enjoy the beach with us below. 

Artsplosure 2012

We just barely made it to Artsplosure this year, but it was worth it. Arin and Nina made lots of crafts, Cory danced to some great music, and Evan whipped the butt of a man we didn't know in giant metal contraption chess. Here are some highlights, so you can feel like you were there with us. 

Our Babies, Ourselves

In her book, Our Babies, Ourselves, Meredith Small drives home how unique Western culture, American culture especially, is in the independance it demands from infants. Being the anthropologist she is there are many stories about how infants are treated in other types of cultures and societies from the present day hunter-gatherer to the urban Japanese household. Most of these cultures are more baby centric than the hospital delivery intervention promoting, daycare loving culture America encourages for the most part. 

     One of her primary points is that while there may be a push toward independance when it comes to the ability to compete in a western job market, babies themselves are much more in the control of evolutionary rather than societal values. She asserts that when it comes to babies we may be providing the best and healthiest environment for them if we listen to some aspects of less advanced cultures. The scientifically proven advantages of breast feeding that many of us have heard already found their way into Small's chapter on the subject. She also posits many possible connections between infant health and co-sleeping, even going to far as to suggest co-sleeping may reduce the risk of SIDS. 

     I think there is something to be said for the creative thinking that American individuality promotes. But I can understand that babies may not yet be ready for that aspect of our culture. After reading this book I have been put face to face with how much my culture affects what I value as a parent. I saw that the neediness of babies is such an affront to our western sensibilities that we actually make things more difficult for ourselves in some ways. Did you realize that only in western modern culture is lack of milk production a major breast feeding problem? Small suggests this may be due to separation at birth, or possibly anxiety on the part of the mother, who often doesn't have a ready support network to aid and encourage her. Small also points to infrequency of feeding as a possible problem, stating that in some cultures babies feed every 15 minutes. 

     So a question becomes how much should we bend culture for the comfort and well being of our babies or do we continue to require them to adjust to our demands? I think most families are struggling to find a happy medium among the loud advice of society and family, their own instinct and the new information science is providing. I think the future will hold interesting compromises for the benefit of our babies. 

Happiness and Homeschoolers

By now you know I love studies and facts. Yet I know they are fallible. That is what I found when I looked for studies about homeschoolers and happiness. There are about two studies, both done by homeschool related agencies. That would deem them biased, although I do tend to trust homeschoolers more than some people. But at the same time I don't blame people for not trusting the information. I wondered if homeschoolers, when they get to be adults are any more happy, well adjusted, giving citizens than your average person. I tend to think it may be true for a number of reasons. 1. Homeschoolers have more downtime to look into themselves and their own interests. I think this is vitally important to really know what will give you satisfaction out of life and out of your relationships. 2. Homeschoolers tend to have less peer pressure. In my experience with my kids, most of the kids they associate with are securely grounded in their place with their family. They feel they belong, and therefore are secure, lessening the need to put others down, pick on others, and participate in other activities associated with insecurity, making them more confident to be who they are. 3. Homeschoolers can have amazing access to personalized experience. My kids have petted so many animals, been on so many tours of so many places, and in general experienced so much of life first hand it is just amazing. Surely this would help them visualize their future likes, abilities, and opportunities. 4. Homeschoolers have more time to invest in philanthropy. My kids have sorted shoes for people in Haiti, helped in a garden, and we visit a nursing home monthly. Besides the fact that whenever they are curious we can talk about living conditions anywhere on the earth, I can tell them about the loans we do through KIVA, and if they want to help anyone anywhere, we can work on doing it. They have a wonderful opportunity for a global perspective.


That is my theory. More time to know yourself, your family, your community, your world, and the opportunity to participate in it, makes for a happier, more giving person. I don't know many adult homeschoolers. The ones I do know tend to confirm that theory. The couple of biased studies out there tend to confirm my theory. But my experiment won't be complete for quite a few years, and I can't wait to see the outcome. Well, I can, I am in no rush for everyone to grow up and leave me, but I will be happy for them to find their place in this world. I hope my contribution to their lives will outweigh the baggage I leave them with, and that they will confirm the satisfaction theory I am inflicting on their lives.

This is a relatively old American study of homeschoolers.

This is an article about a newer Canadian study of homeschoolers.

Feminine Mystique and the Single Dimension

I began thinking about putting this into words when I came back from visiting Indiana for Christmas. I had spent a good bit of time there without internet, working hard to keep my one-year-old occupied and out of trouble. After my baby turned one in October I had decided to give up my social life. Previously, I had been carting my little one around to book clubs and philosophy meetups, and girls nights out for his first year. Normally he would be cute for 30 minutes, and then sleep and I would be home free, but then locomotion began, and my sweet sleepyhead became a busy wiggly butt. I tried to leave him home, but things began coming up. Todd's schedule was unpredictable, Cory was whiny, and I decided it was better to give up than be disappointed. I was really very happy with that decision for several months, but I coasted along a few months too many before being mindful of the toll my one-dimentional-ness was taking on me. It was on the way home from Christmas that I decided I needed to salvage my social life.

The single dimension is a place a few moms can be and still be very happy with themselves. It can be rewarding when your children are young and really in need of you, making you feel important. The single dimension is what happens when you are one thing. For me it was mother, but if your single dimension leaves you with only being an auto mechanic, I can't imagine that being very satisfying either. We all are saddled with the main thing we are. Whether that be a career, or a relationship. And while many people take great pride in their main vocation, few people are satisfied being defined only one way. Take the group of people I tend to run with. They are mostly women, and a man or two, who have chosen to educate their own kids, so they are with their kids alot of the time, but rarely is "Mom", "Dad", or "Home educator " their only dimension. I have mom friends who are runners, like me, lobbyists, artists, dancers, teachers (in a classroom, I mean), and many other things. They are immensely interesting people.

Since I have become mom to yet another toddler. My "mom" dimension has become somewhat overwhelming. I can no longer have long conversations with the other interesting women at home school groups. I can't take Cory to book club, I can't take him to philosophy meetup, or a movie. I feel chained to wiggly butt. I realized when we were driving back from Indiana how much my brain had suffered from intense immersion with a toddler for just that week. It was a week after the Christmas trip before my brain could function well enough to formulate an interesting thought, let alone string a few solid sentences together to express it to others, and I felt diminished.

Which brings me to the Feminine Mystique. This is one of the key books that spawned the feminist movement in America. It was written in 1963 by Betty Friedan, and while I am rather disconcerted by modern feminism, this original feminist treatise has loads to say about my one-dimensional condition. I won't even get into most of those gems here (so please read it). Some people have said that in this book Friedan tells all women to go out and get a job. Some people have taken this encouragement and run with it, pressuring women to leave their kids and get mundane, unsatisfying jobs they don't care about, and then expecting them to feel fulfilled. That is completely missing the point. Take the quote below:

pg 344 "But a job, any job, is not the answer - in fact, it can be part of the trap. Women who do not look for jobs equal to their actual capacity, who do not let themselves develop the lifetime interests and goals which require serious education and training, who take a job at twenty or forty to 'help our at home' or just to kill extra time, are walking , almost as surely as the ones who stay inside the housewife trap, to a nonexistent future. If a job is to be the way out of the trap for a woman, it must be a job that she can take seriously as part of a life plan, work in which she can grow as part of society."

Friedan doesn't specify which kind of job or how many hours or the pay. We women, and society have put our own pressure on ourselves to be engineers and CEOs. Women should have those opportunities, but we should not have to balance out men in those positions if we choose not to. I personally would hate the life of the CEO. I know my calling is to work with kids in foster care or in the context of adoption. I want kids to get good stable homes, because I think that is vital to societies all over the world. Being a CEO of some fortune 500 company would distract me from what I feel is really important, but doing paper work for my own personal adoption, or volunteering with Guardian Ad Litem, would make me feel closer to the work I find so important. Yes, maybe when my kids are older I will get a masters in social work, and get an actual paying job in such a field, but I never see myself as a full time career person. Honestly, if I felt like I had to punch a clock and put in 40 hours somewhere in order to further the cause of feminism, I would abandon it. I think it is wonderful that women have choice these days. My husband does as well. He knows that if I do work in the future it will very likely never be full time, or normal. I want to be available to my kids, have a flexible schedule, and do unique things with my time that I feel really make a difference. I would even do without material possessions for such an opportunity. My husband is good at making money for us. I am not. It would detract from both of our lives if I insisted that I go out and have a job.

Right now making myself a multidimensional woman is having the chance to put together thoughts that I find interesting and sharing them with others on my blog. It is getting a babysitter and going to the philosophy meetup to talk about interesting things with educated people. It is running more than once a week. It is making sure I always have a book on hand to expand my knowledge of the world around me and then reading it. It is giving Todd the kids and going out with just the girls. It is making sure I know I have plans for the future, and that my toddler will not dominate my life forever. Yes, I do have to make certain sacrifices for the sake of todderhood. He will drag out all of my measuring cups just after I put away all the pots and pans he previously drug out. But his mama is not all that I am. And thanks to teamwork, with a really understanding husband, I am becoming more in touch with all of my dimensions.

Arin

Last week I sent off the final report to our adoption agency regarding the welfare of the child we adopted through them from India. We were required to send reports that would make their way to the Indian government for five years after we brought him home. When Arin first came to us that seemed like a long time. I could never have imagined then what our life would have been like when I sent off that last report five years later. I could not have imagined that concurrent with sending the report I would have been sending our I-600A to US Citizenship and Immigration in anticipation of another child or children entering our family. I would not have guessed that I would be working on yet another dossier for yet another adoption. I would not have guessed I would be presently trading e-mails with the same social worker (the best ever) whom I peppered with questions about the first batch of adoption paperwork I ever made my way through. The social worker that told me that YES, Arindam was ours, may soon tell us that another child will be ours as well.

We are getting ready to celebrate Arin's 8th birthday. At the back of my head, though I have the awareness that right now over in Ghana a child or children who will one day live in my house, and be my kid may be having a birthday now, or any day now. It is an amazing place to be. I kind of compare it to imagining the potential the baby in my tummy will bring with it when it emerges, except that my new adopted children have already been born. There is worry, anticipation, but also confidence. Arin has been through a good bit of adjustment with us. He has been basically our first born adopted child, and we all survived up until this point. I am proud of the loving sensitive, eager-to-please-others, kid he is now, and I am glad we can include more kids into our family the same way he came