Day 23: More with Less

As I trudged through the sludge along Laurier's unshoveled sidewalks, on my way to check out the $1.00 sale at Loeb (yesssssssssss!! flyer here), I was thinking about, well, doing more with less. Elementary, you say? Well look, it's easy to do more with more, isn't it? We spend more to consume more. We pollute more to acquire creature comforts. We spend our children's future (clean air, water, a hospitable climate, and environmental safety) to make ourselves happy during our own short lifetimes. We are mortal, and thus pathetically short-sighted. We think, "after I'm dead, what does it matter"?

Right now, I'm discovering specifically that we often eat more than we need, and for the wrong reasons - more for comfort and entertainment than for necessity of life.

I'm feeling a bit gloomy anyways, so I'll point out an article from The Observer (UK) on the inevitability of global warming and how it will affect human life on Earth. It speaks for itself... Again, there is probably still time to prevent catastrophe, but we have to act NOW.

A draft copy of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, obtained by The Observer, shows the frequency of devastating storms - like the ones that battered Britain last week - will increase dramatically. Sea levels will rise over the century by around half a metre; snow will disappear from all but the highest mountains; deserts will spread; oceans become acidic, leading to the destruction of coral reefs and atolls; and deadly heatwaves will become more prevalent.

The impact will be catastrophic, forcing hundreds of millions of people to flee their devastated homelands, particularly in tropical, low-lying areas, while creating waves of immigrants whose movements will strain the economies of even the most affluent countries.

'The really chilling thing about the IPCC report is that it is the work of several thousand climate experts who have widely differing views about how greenhouse gases will have their effect. Some think they will have a major impact, others a lesser role. Each paragraph of this report was therefore argued over and scrutinised intensely. Only points that were considered indisputable survived this process. This is a very conservative document - that's what makes it so scary,' said one senior UK climate expert. (observer.co.uk: full article)

On another note, many thanks to Mike & Ang for the dinner, company, and encouragement offered to me this evening. Such good friends make this daily toil bearable!

Breakfast: 2 cups coffee, chocolate-oatmeal energy bar $0.78
Lunch: 1 can beans in tomato sauce, 3 slices bread with margarine, tea $1.18
Dinner: Nachos, salsa, hummus, olives, tea & cookies (free! Thanks to Ang & Mike) $0.00
Snack: 1 cup milk $0.32
Other: Multivitamin, Ca/ D, C, glucosamine $0.21

Day 23 Total: $2.48