Happy Earth Day! •• Posting later than usual but my, it’s been a day. Throwing it back to #Tromso, #Norway. •• Every place I have visited in the past year has something in common - people there can’t stop talking about how their local climate is changing. •• Everywhere. Dubai has broken their own heat records. I left Tromsø a few days before Christmas, and deep in the Arctic Circle, it was 45 F (7 C) and raining. The Global Seed Vault In Svalbard, whose entire purpose is to preserve plant life for apocalyptic events, is in danger of flooding from melting ice. Athens had several thunderstorms in the middle of summer, in contrast to the usual bone dry weather of the season, and flash floods in fall. Southern California’s weather patterns are more extreme and out of control than ever. •• We only have this one world. Humans have built communities and societies dependent on a certain type of climate; animals and plants have evolved defenses and survival mechanisms over millennia based on a specific type of ecosystem. •• We can’t all adapt to this current rate of change fast enough to survive. We can’t risk destroying the one environment we have. And as always, we leave the most vulnerable populations at severe risk if we continue to do nothing. •• In addition to petitioning and calling for change, we can start it at home. This #EarthDay, pledge to 1) reduce plastic use 2) offset your carbon footprint 3) walk and use public transportation as much as you can 4) reduce the red meat in your diet (beef is very environmentally unfriendly to produce) I’m going to do a whole in-depth article for protecting the environment while you travel. Stay tuned in a couple of weeks or so! . . . .