<\/a><\/p>\n

To quote the photographer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This is the Perris, Ca, 215 northbound south of perris blvd during the morning commute. This would normally be a bright time of the day, but this morning, traffic was a little stop and go due to the smoke from the local fires here in southern california. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A little understated, perhaps?<\/p>\n

As awful as all this was, I have to wonder if this is what it will take to get people to take climate change seriously. Unfortunately even people who realize that we have a major problem on our hands are often overwhelmed by the thing, and tend to add it to the long list of Bad Things That Mostly Affect Someone Else (AIDS in Africa, the Israeli\/Palestinian conflict, even Shrub’s fiasco in Iraq) and change the channel.<\/p>\n

This is particularly sad because climate change is one of those things that Americans can<\/em> do something about quite directly. It’s pretty hard for me to make a major difference in a lot of situations (although that’s no excuse for not trying), but climate change is all about my<\/em> behavior. I can drive less (or not at all). I can replace incandescent bulbs with CFs and turn them off when I leave the room. I can turn down the thermostat. I can support alternative energy programs. I can purchase carbon offsets. I can avoid buying produce that flew half way around the world. I can reduce, reuse, recycle. And if even some<\/em> of the rest of you do the same, we make a significant difference. We probably won’t solve the problem by ourselves, but we can start the ball rolling, proving that there is support for change at the consumer (and voter) level.<\/p>\n

It’s arguably one of the best examples of where “Think Globally, Act Locally” can really make a profound difference. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately important things like not driving and skipping the raspberries flown in from remote lands comes at a personal inconvenience. This requires will which, sadly, is typically driven by fear. So maybe we need a few scares like this (along with tragedies like Katrina) to generate the kind of immediacy and fear necessary to get us out of our single-occupant SUVs.<\/p>\n

Best hope we turn things around before the tragedy comes to your home, though.<\/p>\n

Thanks to TonyGman<\/a> for the great photo<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To quote the photographer: This is the Perris, Ca, 215 northbound south of perris blvd during the morning commute. This would normally be a bright time of the day, but this morning, traffic was a little stop and go due to the smoke from the local fires here in southern california. A little understated, perhaps? … Continue reading “Is this what political will looks like?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,20,13],"tags":[74,96,869,865,97,39],"class_list":["post-705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-photography","category-politics","tag-change","tag-climate-change","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-think-globally-act-locally","tag-transport"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p90sy-bn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":292,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2006\/01\/08\/links-for-2006-01-08\/","url_meta":{"origin":705,"position":0},"title":"links for 2006-01-08","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"8 Jan 06","format":false,"excerpt":"Windows Crash Some very cool photographs of very public Windows crashes. Hee, hee, hee... (tags: Windows humor photography photos) This Can't Be Happening! An interesting and in-your-face blog about the many things that are messed up about the Bush administration. (tags: blog journalism blogging politics media)","rel":"","context":"In "Daily links"","block_context":{"text":"Daily links","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/daily-links\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":763,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/12\/30\/horror-stories-frozen-in-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":705,"position":1},"title":"Horror stories (Frozen in time)","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"30 Dec 07","format":false,"excerpt":"In doing my homework on things to see while I was in Dublin early in December, I was particularly struck by the description in one book of \"Famine\", a sculpture group by Rowan Gillespie. The sculptures represent victims of the enormously tragic famine of the mid-1800's, where a full quarter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":697,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/11\/15\/terrible-glory\/","url_meta":{"origin":705,"position":2},"title":"Terrible glory","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"15 Nov 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Posted on Flickr by Pierre J.: These are four scanned pictures of hardcopies I possess of the French nuclear test codenamed Licorne, which was fired on August 24, 1970 . The French army had those pictures taken on site. Those pictures were readily available at the time at Tahiti and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Environment"","block_context":{"text":"Environment","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/science\/environment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":194,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/07\/09\/white-hands-for-those-in-london\/","url_meta":{"origin":705,"position":3},"title":"White hands for those in London","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"9 Jul 05","format":false,"excerpt":"After the devastating Madrid bombings a few years ago a number of people chose to respond by painting their hands white, a symbol which ...originated in Spain, when students in Madrid used it in 1996 as a sign of innocence and of their revulsion at the murder, by the ETA\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White hands in harebells","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/photos21.flickr.com\/24802316_132952e43e_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":207,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/07\/22\/what-a-lovely-sentiment\/","url_meta":{"origin":705,"position":4},"title":"What a lovely sentiment","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"22 Jul 05","format":false,"excerpt":"We have Mags to thank for sharing this nifty piece. I have a pot brewing as we speak...","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":296,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2006\/01\/13\/thanks-pete\/","url_meta":{"origin":705,"position":5},"title":"Thanks, Pete","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"13 Jan 06","format":false,"excerpt":"I wish I could take credit for this incredibly cool photo, but I can't. The wonderful shot on the right is by D. James from Flickr. Equally excellent is the tale he tells with it; I'll make you click through to check that out. I will say, however, that both\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computing"","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Thanks, Pete by D.James from Flickr","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/42\/84117935_1d2ee39b0e_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}