Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Personal Thoughts about Global Warming: a commentary by Nanci Olesen

We?re in the middle of the first decade of the twenty first century. The Greenlanders are contending with a surprising lack of sea ice. The way it was explained in a recent National Geographic is that when there is no sea ice there are no walrus nearby. When there are no walrus there is no food for the dogs and the humans. The polar bears, the marine birds, the marine mammals, the humans, the dogs, all have developed their systems dependent on the sea ice and its predictable thickness from November to April. But now that is not predictable. Last year there was no sea ice at all for some villages in Greenland.

I wonder what will come of us as we continue to heat the planet up. My son, who is fifteen, is angry about this global warming. He feels gypped that he doesn?t get to have the kind of winter that my husband and I describe to him from our childhoods. He wishes that the ice conditions on our neighborhood rink would remain stable and predictable. He wishes it wouldn?t rain one day and snow the next.

So here?s my question: If a day dawns in February in Minneapolis, Minnesota and it is 45 degrees and sunny, and the sidewalk is wet and the soil is thawing and the snowy water pours off of my roof, do I start the day mad? As I open the shades and look out at the melting snow on my lawn, such a welcome sight in April, do I sigh, and seethe, and pour my breakfast cereal in a fit of anger and confusion? How does this affect my whole family?

Our family is well aware of the environmental destruction that humans have wrought on our planet. And we are well past the argument about whether global warming is real. Please. When all the leading scientists of the world say, ?Here is some proof. The atmosphere?s level of carbon dioxide is now higher than it has been for hundreds of thousands of years. We?re now geological agents, capable of affecting the processes that determine climate. Soon many hurricanes of huge proportion will whip up on the oceans, due to the increased ocean temperature. The polar ice cap will continue to melt.? We take this as scientific fact.

But still, as it continues, what do I do? Do I just open the shades in the morning, start the coffee and think, ?Wow, maybe I should plant those bulbs I meant to plant last fall?? Do I just say, ?Yippee! We?re gonna grill out tonight and we can eat at the picnic table too!?

Each morning my stomach is churning in dread to think of the next thing? maybe a mid February tornado? The changes are hard to keep up with and as I try to turn back the years so that February will act like the Februarys I knew ten years ago, I feel frustrated.

I can clean the garage and lay things out on the driveway in the afternoon sun. I can take a long walk with the kids and the dog after school. I guess I?ll just put the cross country skis away for a while. The kids know that things are weird. They?re studying it in school.

I don?t have an answer to my question. I feel mad and scared about the changes on our planet. As a citizen I?m outraged. But as a mom I can?t walk around mad every second. We?re carpooling and riding bikes and getting fluorescent lightbulbs. We?re giving money to our favorite environmental groups.

And you know what? I think we?re gonna put chicken on the grill tonight.