The Environment and Global warming

Mercedes seems to be doing well in high school so far other than some problems with money because she has to buy books and new school uniforms, pay for school fees, and pay for additional lessons (known as les in Indonesia). We call her three or four times a day, and she calls us several times so there is a lot of communication going on. We’ll be going back to Bali in another seven weeks.

One of my more recent interests (as those who read this blog occasionally know) is the state of the worldwide water situation. Another one that I’m just developing is global warming. It’s fairly obvious that the weather has changed over the past 18 years here in Indonesia. Generally, environmental issues were never something that caught my interest (with the exception of rainforest destruction), but perhaps because I’m on the verge of retirement, new issues have entered my radar.

I was reading an article about the pollution of the atmosphere from air travel. I didn’t realize that there was so much activity around this area. I took a look at a carbon calculator to see what the cost would be in carbon emissions for a trip from Denpasar to Chicago and back. Well, I’m glad that I won’t be doing this much. Actually since I’ve moved to Sumbawa, I rarely fly: one overseas trip a year for the annual EARCOS conference, and occasionally, I take a short flight from Bali to Lombok, although usually we drive which is more environmentally friendly according to the article in Salon that I read.

The environment is becoming more of a political issue in Indonesia these days although public awareness still is fairly low. At my house in Bali, the neighbors still throw their trash in the sea; and here in Sumbawa, a neighbor still throws his trash in a patch of jungle in front of his house even though we mentioned it to him once. But, on the positive side, there are more public trash bins available, the cities have trash collection, and recycling has taken hold in some places in Indonesia. Eco-tourism is starting to develop as well. There is hope that environmental awareness will develop here. And just as I’m about to finish this, there’s a report that the Pope is committed to making the Vatican green. Good news from the Vatican and the Pope.