Please let me know if any of these stories ring true to you. Do you have any other fitting stories? If so, please share with me.

THE FROG IN THE PAN

A frog sits on the stove in a slowly warming pan of water. The water is warming so very slowly that he doesn’t notice and continues to sit placidly.

This does help explain why we may be able to ignore Climate Change for far too long. Yet there are important differences between a frog in water and Climate Change. Water cools quickly once we turn off the burner on the stove. However, carbon in the form of CO2 stays in the atmosphere for decades to centuries to even longer. Also, we can’t hop off planet earth. This is the only planet we have.

BABY BIRDS IN A NEST

Look at the baby birds in their nest. Watch as they play a great game of who can toss the most poop into the sky and down in to the water below! Ooh, they are getting very more numerous. And stronger. They are tossing it all over the earth and sky! What if CO₂ and methane were more visible? Sky ever more brown? Or even white if bird poop? But not blue…

If only carbon (CO₂) and methane were an opaque, say brownish, color, instead of essentially invisible to us. Might we be changing our ways much faster if our skies and oceans were becoming ever browner? Can we use our imagination to color carbon brown when we think about our ever rising CO₂ levels in the atmosphere? Can we decide as individuals, groups and countries to stop fouling our one and only nest now?

STICKS AND STONES… NO, STICKS AND STICKS!

Once upon a time a lonely stick hopped this way and that. Life was in many ways good, but she noticed her little planet earth was changing in new and strange ways. She was a very observant little stick and noticed that many of her animal friends were dying off. Some of her plant buddies were also, and some new strange plants were arriving. Storms and floods were increasing. What was happening?! She felt increasingly lonely and scared.

One day she met another little stick, who it turned out was making similar observations to her. Maybe two sticks are better than one they said and started trying to understand what was going on. Over time they kept meeting new little sticks, each of whom offered new, good ideas about what was going on and what to do about it. And suddenly one day, they started making a big, good difference!

Have you ever tried breaking a thin stick? It’s usually so easy. Then tried breaking a bundle of sticks? Now it is enormously more difficult. This is a phenomenon that can be used for good or not-so-good. However, if we are thoughtful about using our group cohesiveness and action for the best things we can figure out, it can give us vastly more strength.