Inconvenient but still true

Last night we finally started watching An Inconvenient Truth. As we try to live our lives in a way that conserves resources and lessons our ‘carbon footprint’, much of the documentary didn’t surprise us. We are aware that coral reefs are dying, and that the North Pole is melting faster each year, and even that ice shelves are breaking off of Antarctica. None of this is news: the world is falling apart, and it’s due to humans overpopulating and stripping the world of its resources.

And yet, this documentary and the science itself are disputed. I would wager a bet that there are more people out there who believe in the second coming of Christ (or the first, if you are Jewish) than in Global Warming. Only one is based in fact and science.

The documentary made me sad. But not just because of the environment and what we are doing to it. Watching Al Gore speak and present his research and findings all over the world, I thought of the horrible, idiot president we have now. I thought of all the ways life in America could be different. I can’t even imagine Bush sounding that intelligent for that long a period of time – even if he was given a script. But at least he isn't boring, right? Have you had enough excitement yet, people? I thought of how I felt after the “election” in 2000, and again in 2004 and started to feel hopeless again. Then I remembered I fled America and no longer pay taxes to support a “war” I don’t believe in.

I’m sad, too, because instead of changing their lives, people are finding it much easier to say “it’s a hoax!” and do nothing. It’s not a hoax. And you don’t have to be a scientist to understand that. Just read the news!

The-ice-shelf-is-breaking-off-in-Antarctica!

Glaciers-are-shrinking!

Darren and I joke quite a lot about not having children. We don’t much care for children, and we are a bit selfish with our money right now. But the larger truth is that we don’t want to bring children into this world, when scientists predict that the rainforests and polar ice caps will be gone within 40 years. 40 years. And yet people go on not recycling, buying gigantic vehicles with low gas mileage, building huge houses and having sextuplets. We can’t in good conscience bring a child into a world where so many people either don’t believe in global warming or don’t care.

Have you seen the documentary Planet Earth (BBC)? It’s incredibly beautiful. The series explores and documents the world’s topography – deserts, plains, oceans, caves etc. It’s clear how well the planet was working before humans came along. The lifecycles were so perfectly balanced. And now? Habitats are disappearing as humans build cities and suburbs, waters are becoming too warm for certain fish or animals to live, and entire species are dying out every day.

The skeptics out there don’t deny that the world is getting warmer, or that the temperature is higher than it should be. They question whether the effects will be as big or as soon as scientists say, and whether the warming is due to humans. I say to them “does it matter when?” Because we’ll have to change our ways sooner or later. As for the human bit, take a look at the map below of carbon emissions per country. Notice how the industrialized countries are darker?

You can calculate your Carbon Footprint here-->clicky

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Trip Report

We are back! Yes, I know I should have written this post last week when we actually arrived back, but I was busy with jetlag and laundry. Here is a cute picture of my brother's cat to distract you:

The jetlag coming back wasn’t nearly as bad as going to the US. Primarily because (I believe) it’s easier to adjust to the time when going West. I had no trouble at all waking up in time for work, but noticed around 3pm or so that I was inches away from a coma.

As far as travelling goes, we learned a couple things on this trip:

1) It’s worth the cost to fly Premium Economy on Air New Zealand. The seats are roomier, tilt back further and have a foot rest. The food is also better and there is a self-serve snack area filled with water, fruit and snack bars. We both arrived in the US well-rested, hydrated and without swollen feet/ankles. If you fly Prem. Econ., make sure you do so on the 747, and request the seats on the top deck.

2) If you are flying Air NZ and have a long layover in LA, go up to the Koru Lounge and pay $55 to hang out for the day. The price covers alcohol, beer, wine and food continuously replenished throughout the day. There are also several desks for laptops, as well as three computers with internet access to use. The showers are great too!

Most of all, though, this trip confirmed that our decision to move to Wellington was the right one. Not only were we homesick for Wellington shortly into our visit, but I was literally giddy when we got back home. I believe I may just be in love with Wellington! It is weird to state that I’m in love with a city, but is the only way to describe how I feel about living here. I’m not alone in this feeling…ironically, while I was pondering how to portray my feelings in this blog post, our friend Heather posted similar sentiments on her blog.

I do want to point out that I never doubted our decision to move here. I’ve made three huge decisions in the course of my life, and each one was entered into with confidence after much thinking. The first one I made fairly early in my life – age 20 – although I certainly believed I was much more mature at the time. I had an unintentional chance to confirm that decision several years later, and the result did not surprise me. This trip was quite similar – I did not intentionally go to the US to confirm my decision to leave, but again, I was not surprised at the confirmation.

Seeing friends and family, of course, was the highlight (and purpose) of our trip. So much has happened in the nine months since our move – engagements, weddings, separations, births, pregnancies and promotions. So much can happen in the space of so little time! And because of that, I’m glad we visited sooner than we had originally planned. We are determined to make more of an effort at keeping in touch with everyone on a more frequent basis. We’re counting on you guys to do the same! It was really good to see everyone and catch up on all the goss (gossip). However, for those of you who have decided not to move to New Zealand (despite our excellent recruiting), we’d like you to do a couple things for us:

1) Recycle. Way too many of you gave me a blank or worried look when I asked if you recycled. Honestly, I was really disappointed. Is it really so difficult? Landfills, people! Global warming? Environment? Help us out, won’t you? To get you started, rent Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth.

2) Stop shopping at Wal-Mart. Yeah, I get it, they have cheap stuff. So does Target, BJs and Costco! It might take a little looking around, and maybe even spending 50 cents or more at the checkout. It’s worth it – trust me. Wal-Mart is a very very bad company. They treat their female employees horribly, deny healthcare plans to many employees and wreck the environment with their gigantic stores. Most (if not all) of you have good jobs with healthcare benefits. Is saving a few cents on makeup worth denying that benefit to people who work for Wal-mart?

3) If you have a baby, try cloth diapers One of the friends I hung out with in Maryland already does this. She noted she had to do laundry anyway! Did you know that one diaper takes 80 years to decompose in a landfill? One diaper!

4) Donate to environmental causes. Sure, there are a lot of charities out there for anything imaginable. And many of you may already have your ‘pet’ causes. If not, though, consider the environment. Because without the sustaining the world, well, the rest just doesn’t matter. When it becomes inhabitable, it will be inhabitable for everyone.

Sorry for being so preachy, but the world is falling apart, people! For those of you planning to have children, do you really want to bring them into a world we destroyed? Scientists are projecting that the rainforests will be gone in 40 years, as well as much of the ice at the North Pole. It’s scary and it’s real.


As for the food we so greatly anticipated eating, we found that out of the very long list of food items and restaurants we had craved, only a few were as yummy as we remembered. The main one for me, of course, being a Nathan’s hot dog. Hot dogs just aren’t the same here. Darren was happy to have cheap Mexican food, and food masquerading as Mexican food (Taco Hell).

But the ice cream just wasn’t as good as the NZ ice cream, and I didn’t enjoy donuts, the brown-rice sushi at Whole Foods or the crab cakes I used to love so much. The mini replica of our wedding cake (pictured) was awesome, though!! Unfortunately, we can't easily have that shipped here, much like the other food we really like which is primarily found on the frozen food aisle (Morningstar corn dogs, 600 lb gorilla choc chip cookies etc).

It’s good to be back to the place we now consider “home” – we missed the beauty, the walking, and the relaxed atmosphere while we were away. Now if we could just get all our friends and family to move here… =)

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Anniversary Pics

As promised, here are the pics of the gift we picked out, as well as a few pics of us at the end of the dinner. If you can't tell I'm a bit tipsy (on one glass of very yummy wine!) Darren has a much higher tolerance. =)

The wine in question is: Plantagenet Shiraz 2002 (Mt baker), which is described as Ripe plums, white pepper & middle eastern spices. Smokey oak finish. Yum!

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1st Wedding Anniversary!

Today is our one year wedding anniversary. One year, and I still spend countless hours staring at my engagement ring when it catches the light just-so…
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Ok, I’m back. =)

To celebrate our anniversary, we’ve decided to buy a joint gift instead of trying to figure out what to get each other. As soon as I had made the suggestion, we both knew what we should buy: a sculpture.

Shortly after we moved, we wandered into a little art gallery on Wakefield Street called Tamarillo during one of our weekend strolls. We had noticed a little sculpture of a Kiwi in the window made of metal and wanted to take a closer look. We didn’t have the money to buy it then, but we visited the little Kiwi every other week or so just to make sure he was still there. Luckily, he was still there this weekend.

The shop did a great job of wrapping him up, complete with wrapping paper and bow (pictures later). Tonight, we’ll unwrap the gift together when we go to dinner at a little French restaurant near our house.

We’ll also make sure to take a picture while at dinner, as our friend Merrin suggested, to include in a photobook that we can add to each year on our anniversary.

Speaking of pictures, here are a handful of our favorites from the wedding. If you’d like to see the photobook I put together, click -->here<--.

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