Climate warrior

Tim Flannery, Australian author of The Weathermakers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change, has been promoting his book in Canada and conferring with policy makers in Ottawa. The book has been touted by British prime minister Tony Blair -- at the anti-Portlands energy plant rally I went to recently, NDP leader Jack Layton said he'd pressed a copy on our prime minister, and keeps bugging him to read it.

This morning on CBC Radio Flannery said that his generation asked their dads, "What did you do in the war?" and honoured their contributions in the fight against a clear enemy in the '40s. But our kids, Flannery says, will ask us, "What did you do in the war against global warming?"

That's it. I'm giving up ironing. Well, at least I'm going to read Flannery's book. And I think I'm going to see if I can rouse folks at Ryerson, my only workplace besides my house, to turn off their computers at night and on weekends. The Green Tips book by Gillian Deacon says that "a single computer, left on nights and weekends, can cost $95 a year in wasted energy" (typically we frame threats in dollars, as if our pocketbooks were all that mattered, but, sadly, that's the most effective motivator).