It's winter!

Did anyone notice that some parts of Victoria had a White Christmas? Did you see that California has been frozen lately? How about the winter heat-wave in New York?

Let's face it; nobody in power seems willing to give a damn beyond the usual rhetoric. Maybe the sheer political and economical scale of the problem these days prohibits groups with influence in high places like the IPCC/WMO from getting off their bums to do something. What are those guys doing anyway, other than having conferences?

So, is it too late? Most people think it's not too late, but unfortunately even if that is true, it's statements like that which will allow people to casually hold off on their plans to buy an electric car, wear a jumper instead of turning the heating up, or turn on lights instead of opening some curtains.

With 2007 set to be the warmest year on record (due to the combination of global warming and El Niño) I'd rather believe that it is too late. Yes, I'm with Hermann Ott on this one. While most people are thinking and talking about the problem, most people won't actually do something about it until the problem is in their face, affecting them personally.

I'm no bloody bearded greeny (despite the long hair), but when I eventually get around to buying a car, it'll be fully electric. This won't happen for a while, especially if you know what happened to the GM EV1 (check out Who Killed the Electric Car?). Electric cars have a social stigma of being crap and ugly, which is true if you blindly ignore companies such as Telsa Motors.

I try to save energy where I can, which includes my funky Artemide E.Light, energy saving bulbs, continuous/on-demand gas hot water and so forth. This also includes using a laptop as my workstation. I take the metro to work, and walk to and from the metro station rather than take a bus. Ultimately it's not much, but every little bit counts.

I'm worried. You should be too.