Blog Action Day 2009 - it's getting hot in here!

today is Blog Action Day 2009, and i'm looking back through the archives on this blog to see what i've said in the past about climate change

in the year 2005, apparently i thought there was very little we could do about it anyways, so i advocated that if all of the jargon got too much for people, to just sit back and chill with a drink and if we died, we died.

two years on in 2007, i had changed my stance somewhat. i watched Al Gore's film 'An Inconvenient Truth' and got one side of the story - i went headlong into it, asking people to follow some simple tips in minimizing their impact on the environment.

and today, 2009, i still pretty much feel the same way about it. many of us have had our doubts and reservations about what we hear in the press, but at the very least there is a greater awareness of the issues going on with climate change. we have gotten the two polar opposites to come out in the open and state their stands.

as a person who loves to see the conspiracy theory behind everything, i agree that this might be a demand that has been created, and is being filled by the same people who created the demand. perfect business sense, isn't it?

• the press highlighted this issue, and are now expanding the size of their press corps that cover climate issues.
• the industries that polluted the environment to begin with are now creating departments that will streamline emissions and look at 'green' company policies.
• the politicians who stood on the rooftops telling us about global warming are hoping we re-elect them on the basis of their stands on climate change.
• the lobbyists who fought for the new legislation are now receiving your tax dollars to pay for their efforts to make environmentally-friendly policies.

so if as a result of our wasteful and uncaring ways we have indeed nourished and supported the global warming monster, are we doing enough to undo the mess?

whether you believe in global warming or not, you have to believe that some sort of climate change is happening around us, and also that as a race we have caused untold destruction to our environment.

if you agree that global warming is occurring, you're more than halfway there, and keep on making that contribution that you are, it all counts.

if you believe that global warming is a myth, not much i can say to you here that's going to change your mind - however, could you at least acknowledge that we can practice some better ways of living, and make your contribution?

UPDATE: 3:32 PM EST

Hey bloggers,

October 15th is finally here and nearly 10,000 bloggers around the world are writing about climate change today for Blog Action Day 2009!

At the stroke of midnight we got off to a great start when UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown surprised us with a Blog Action Day post on his blog saying that "climate change is the biggest threat to all our futures."

From there we have seen thousands of interesting posts from bloggers in 150 countries. The Official Google Blog provided a green tour of their campus, Gadling is featuring green travel posts all day, and Grist has a great round-up of some of the best posts thus far. Nonprofits including Oxfam, Greenpeace , 1Sky and TckTckTck have all put up new posts. Blog Action Day has been the top Google blog search today and CNN just wrote an article about us!

Right now posts are pouring in constantly. It's truly an impressive display and there’s too much going on to list it all in an email.

You have to check it out yourself.

You can follow all the latest posts and tweets on a new live stream on the www.blogactionday.org homepage. You can also get breaking updates and more in-depth information on the official Blog Action Day blog.

If you haven't posted yet, remember to include the words “Blog Action Day” in your post so that it gets pulled into the live feed on our homepage. If you are on Twitter, you can follow @blogactionday and use the #BAD09 hashtag in your tweets.

Thanks to all of you who have already posted and to all of you who will throughout the rest of the day. If you haven't, you can still register and participate today!

This has already been an amazing day and the Blog Action Day team couldn’t be more impressed with how many bloggers from all parts of the global are coming together for such an important issue.

Thank you so much,

Robin Beck
Lead Organizer
Blog Action Day 09: Climate Change.