In 1986, while visiting in Tbilisi, Georgia, (Russia), I went to dinner with some educators from the university. Amidst the colorful gymnastic dancers and ear-shattering music, we chatted over a small dinner table. In broken English, one of the gentlemen made what seemed a cautiously couched statement, “I understand that your country has a major crisis.”

Thinking that he was talking about AIDS or Cancer, I asked him to what he was referring. “I think it is called abundance,” he spoke with broken hesitation.

Shocked about hearing something I never would have anticipated, I gestured, “What have you heard?”

“I hear that people are buying more and more things and then getting rid of them within 3 years. They say that there are piles and piles of discarded things and now there is no more land available to store them.”

The crisis and disease of abundance challenged my sensibilities and yet, what the educator reported was certainly not inaccurate. Over many years, I had traveled to several deprived nations of the world doing volunteer work. Repeatedly, even after only 2 weeks of being gone from home, I would come home and confront the number of options we, in the United States, have for anything and everything. We had 30 different kinds of bread on the grocery shelf and in Russia, at that time, they were lucky to stand in line all day to get even one loaf of bread.

The addiction to having “what I want when I want it” and the demand to have the latest update of a product evan earlier anearlier model works just fine was the pattern I became aware of. The need-want-have behavior has continued without considering long term impact on our environment and on future generations. The addiction is causing a crisis of lethal proportions…one that demands conscious exploration, research and choosing to alter and maintain a balance of energy with the use of the planet’s natural resources especially water and fossil fuels, a balance that includes the earth’s atmosphere, and balance then embraces the billions of other human beings on the planet.

Declaring this energy imbalance as a crisis need not thrust us into helplessness or hopelessness. Rather let the declaration call us to action, to conscious and intelligent creativity. Let us not allow the crisis to worsen before we act.

This week, I viewed the Oprah show with Leonardo DiCaprio speaking about the effects of global warming on our planet. The significant use of fossil fuels has contributed to a significant warming of the planet. Some hypothesize that global warming has been a significant factor in the production of the recent powerful hurpolluted The pooluted water and air quality has a direct and critical impact on our health and well-being.

How in the world are we? In trouble if we choose to look at the reports about the condition of our environment and the pollution of our air, water and soil.

There were several suggestions given on the Oprah Show (October 27th, 2005) that I pass on to you for consideration:
1. Drive an energy efficient automobile and demand the manufacturers to make more of them. (www.epa.gov/greenvehicles)
2. Use energy efficient light bulbs (compact fluorescent light bulbs)
3. Unplug electrical appliances that are not in use.
4. Use energy efficient appliances. (Look for the blue energy star.)
5. Write letters to legislators demanding support of environmental legislation.
6. Recycle as much as you can.
7. Join the virtual march on Washington to stop global warming. (www.stopglobalwarming.org)

Additional resources are available at these sites:
www.oprah.com
www.leonardodicaprio.com
www.stopglobalwarming.org
www.greenerchoices.org.