That Other Kyoto

With few exceptions, I've managed to keep this blog focused on Shisendo and the twin outgrowths of my interest in the building--Japan and writing. Recently, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about an issue that has nothing to do with the usual subjects of Over a Hedge in one sense and everything to do with it in another. The issue is climate change, and with the COP15 conference convening in Denmark, I've felt the need to set aside my usual narrow set of interests and join the chorus of people weighing in on this matter.

It's a subject I find difficult to write about because I'm not an expert on it, yet my accumulation of information gathering this past decade or so has helped me form some strong opinions that I would not readily be able to defend because I never bothered to note every source I accessed along the way. Should a climate change denier come across this series of posts ready to confront me with a specially selected set of facts, leave me alone and go challenge an expert to a debate. Win that debate, then come see me. Until then, I'm sticking with the 90+% of scientists who believe that the amount of carbon we are emitting into the atmosphere does account for a wide range of expected and unexpected impacts on our environment.

I envision the posts as largely riffing on information that I have recently collected from various media sources. My main goal is to keep myself engaged in this issue so that I don't become paralyzed in the face of such an enormous problem. If anyone else reading this uses it as a motivational spur as well, so much the better.