April - Take It Further Challenge

Around the time Sharon announced the challenge -"How do you see change? That is the challenge topic this month", and colour palette for April I watched the Oscar winning movie An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore.A bit heavy on facts and figures but they are required I guess to drive home the point that there is a climate crisis which has dire consequences for all of us but there is a little ray of hope which is heavily dependant on the need to change.

I think there will be a tussle in most people's attitude to change as far as climate crisis is concerned but I think there are so many areas where small changes can be made in our lives without actually affecting the quality of our lives.We really need to do all we can to make those changes.

Along with the credits for the movie An Inconvient Truth, lines of text appear on the screen which actually spoke to me more than the movie itself and I'm going to be incorporating it into my TIF piece for April. Here are some of those lines which I wrote down

"Are you ready to change the way you live? The Climate Crisis can be solved.
You can reduce your carbon emissions.
Buy energy efficient appliances - lightbulbs.
Recycle
When you can, walk or ride a bicycle
When you can, use light rail and mass transit
Switch to renewable sources of energy
Plant trees, lots of trees
If you believe in prayer , pray that people will find the strenght to change.
In the words of the old African proverb: When you pray,move your feet.
Learn as much as you can about the climate crisis. Then put your knowledge into action."

I've made concious decisions in a bid to reduce consumption of resources in an attempt to slow and reduce the climate crisis
I buy food and fruit which are locally produced and which are in season.
Shut off all appliances when not in use such as computer, television etc and never use the standby option.
Try and remember to carry a shopping bag with me so I won't have to bring more plastic shopping bags home. ( I need to do a better job of this one)
To buy stuff only if its necessary, find ways to recycle or help the process of recycling like separating my garbage. R's mantra which I like to remember when I have to decide whether I should buy something or not - there are things which are nice to have and those which you need to have.
Living on the ground floor is not at all bad in summer with the fan on, so each year when summer rolls around R's idea of an air conditioner in our bedroom is vetoed, 10 years is a good record I think!
We replaced our car recently and opted for one that's fuel efficient over those which make a statement and give you power and less kilometers to the litre of petrol.
I'm sure I can do more and must educate myself.

Now to the pages for the April - TIF
On the left hand page I'm going to have bits of text and on the right are the beginnings of a tree which is my symbol for change.

As in previous months I'm going back to my stash of stuff and using what I have.

On one of my web wanderings I came across The Story of Stuff . Take a look and if you, like me sees Global warming and the Climate crisis as a situation which needs to be reversed/ changed for generations to come I promise you, you won't be disappointed and watch An Inconvenient Truth as well.