Zeno's Bar & Grill

Forget the breast vs. bottle debate and cry-it-out vs. attachment parenting.

Why isn't every parenting blog on the planet following this story? Last week the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Global Warming released its report and it's grim.

If things continue this way, there's not going to be much left of this planet for our kids and their kids to inherit. I can't think of a group that ought to care more passionately about this than parents of young children today. They say you haven't achieved evolutionary success until your offspring have succesful offspring. Well, our grandkids are gonna be warm and thirsty unless something changes.

Some eye-opening facts from the report:

1. It's 90% certain that global warming is being caused by human activity. I read rumors that some thought the certainty level should be set at 99%. So, yeah, those SUV's, minivans and big station wagons we all drive really are contributing to the problem.

2. Even if greenhouse emissions were frozen at current levels, global warming and sea level rises would continue for centuries.

3. Using the best estimate for actual emissions, by 2100, temperatures are estimated to rise by as much as 8 degrees, and sea level by from half a foot to two feet. That's enough to put low-lying coastal regions or island nations, like the Maldives, at least partially underwater.

So where to start? Hand over the fluorescent light bulbs and buy me a Prius!

Well, not so fast. Another article in today's L.A. Times points out that even if every car on the American roads switched to a Prius, it would only save 3% of the needed cut in carbon emissions. And as for fluorescent light bulbs--if every household in America switched every bulb it would also only save a fraction of what's needed.

It seems like what's needed is massive policy change, some of which is happening already in California, with its global warming bill, passed last August. But more states need to follow and Americans are also going to have to take a long and hard look at things that they're buying from places like India and China (which increased its carbon dioxide emissions by 45% between 1993 and 2004.) And that doesn't just mean flat panel TVs.

It seems like once you become a parent there's an endless stream of stuff to buy. I don't know where all those strollers and diaper bags and the other "parenting" goods are being made--or whether they are from factories that contribute to the problem--but we'd better at least start thinking about those questions.

--Melanie