Today is Blog Action Day. If you haven’t heard of this, it’s the day that bloggers across the world all talk about one subject, The Environment, in their own special way. Each blogger takes the idea of saving the planet and writes about it from their own perspective.

While thinking of the subject for my own discussion, I thought about the recent activities that originally triggered Blog Action Day.

A Problem was Discovered

After losing the United States presidential election in 2000, former Vice President Al Gore didn’t stop his service to America and it’s people. He didn’t retire, move to another area of politics, or move into the corporate sector like many high-profile former politicians. He found a new, wider focus for his energies – Global Warming.

He had heard about Global Warming and it’s affects from a number of scientists during his tenure as Vice President, and it had been an issue that had circulated at a relatively low level for decades before. No one gave much credence to a bunch of no-name scientists that were writing scientific papers (never read by the public) about the increased chances of catastrophic global weather changes caused by the continued release of greenhouse gases.

I imagine he sat and thought about what he could do to help stop global warming for quite a while before deciding what to do. He could work at a personal level; (monitor his emissions and work with corporations to become greener) but he realized that as a widely-known public figure, he could contribute at a level few other people could achieve – as a teacher.

Mr. Gore worked diligently to get the word out to anyone and everyone that would listen, speaking at any event and gathering that he could, about the dangers that global warming can cause to the planet. And here’s the the thing,…

People started to Listen.

Not at first, and not in the numbers you hear about today, but they started to listen. The idea kept on, until it started gaining supporters and mindshare. At first, the increase in our environment of only a few degrees per decade was dismissed by everyone of import as only a minor inconvenience. Surely a couple of degrees difference won’t have that big an effect on our environment?!?? It might even be good in some places to be a little warmer. Not so!

Mr. Gore and the people that had first discovered the upward trend in global emissions and temperatures realized that this wasn’t a ‘good thing’ and that it could very well be a ‘very bad thing’ if it continued. Just in the last few years, major VISIBLE changes to our planet have started to happen – Arctic Ice floes are melting, Water levels are rising, Ocean pH levels are decreasing (becoming more acidic, causing sea creatures’ shells and exoskeletons to be thinner) and even a direct health hazard.

People started to Understand.

As Mr. Gore kept repeating his speech, the implications of mankind’s continuing actions toward global warming became clear. People started to ‘get it’. It wasn’t just some crank freak talking about the end of the world. This was Mr. Al Gore, a former Vice President of the United States. People listened to what he had to say, and started to get the big picture.

The Global Warming movement began to take on steam and a life of it’s own. No longer was it just Mr. Gore and some unknown scientists carrying the burden of trying to wake up the world before it was too late. The greatest power known to man had been awakened!

Global Warming became an IDEA.

There is nothing more powerful in our society today than an IDEA. Countries rise and fall because of an IDEA. Great inventions that change the world come from an IDEA. For good or for bad, Ideas shape and mold the world around us. And now The Global Warming IDEA had taken on a life of it’s own. It has become a common statement on everyone’s mind. It has entered the worlds’ vocabulary. If you mention the words ‘Global Warming’ to almost anyone in the world, you will get recognition. Sometimes good, sometimes not, but a reaction. It’s moved from a fad, to a movement, to an Idea as a part of our global culture.

Keep the IDEA Alive

Everyone can do something to help save the environment, small things add up to big things. Recycling, using less resources and energy, and living a slightly-different lifestyle that is more eco-friendly can make a difference. But only if everyone keeps doing it.

Clean up the World, Save it for Today. Teach Others to Clean Up the World, Save it Forever.

What will cause the greatest change, is keeping the IDEA alive and moving. Keep making your small improvements to the environment, and look for new ways to make improvements, but keep the idea that improvements need to be made in mind, and Spread the Word.

(Congratulations to Mr. Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for winning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Job well done!)

Technorati : blog action day, environment, global warming