Inside View: in-house counsel perspective

Mixed Blessing

Thursday Jan 15, 2009

Here in Silicon Valley we've been experiencing a heat wave. We've had record high temperatures for this time of year - mid-70s and even 80s a bit further inland. And it's the middle of January! In the middle of winter! We've shattered decades-old high temperature records each day for about a week now. Trees that shouldn't be awake for another couple of months are in full bloom. And while this is supposed to be our rainy season, we haven't had a drop of rain for weeks.

While it's hard not to enjoy the sunny, warm, clear weather, it also gives me grave concern. Concern for the climate, melting ice caps, changing animal habitats and migration patterns, our environment, my children, our planet's future, the future of endangered species whose irrevocable path to extinction is already mapped. It makes me wonder if we really can do anything to help fix global warming, or if done is done?

I also have to stop and laugh at myself with my hybrid, CFL lightbulbs, and big recycling bin, and wonder if I really am making a difference. But, as Lyle Lovett would say, "What would you be if you didn't even try? You have to try." And so we all pitch in and try, and hope it will make a difference.

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Posted at 03:03PM Jan 15, 2009 by Virginia Waite in Sun
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Whether it's done or not, we'll either naturally adapt to the changes or die off just as every other species on Earth has done since day one. Either way, there's really not much we can do about it.

Posted by 192.18.8.1 on January 16, 2009 at 05:41 AM PST #

Well, being an optimist at heart I certainly hope this isn't the case. I'd like to believe that all of the smart people in the world working together can come up with a solution to global warming. And that the cumulative effect of people's efforts can have a positive impact on the problem (the "drop in the bucket" theory - a single drop of water won't fill a bucket, but taken together many drops will eventually fill the bucket). I think we *can* make a difference. This is what keeps me driving my hybrid, using CFL bulbs, recycling, conserving energy, etc. We have to try - we can't just give up.

Posted by Virginia Waite on January 16, 2009 at 10:53 AM PST #

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