Imagine all the people living for today.

Lots of people like to live for today, but what about for tomorrow or the week after, or a decade after? Our world is a beautiful place, amid the disasters and the murders and abuse, the world is visually stunning and I find I learn a lot from it and the living organisms that inhabit it. It's such a shame though that our convenient, luxurious and fast way of living is choking such a special planet.

I have changed my light bulbs to 80% energy saving lights, turn off power points when they are not in use, turn my computer screen off when I shut down my computer, use less hot water, eating less meat than I usually consume, walk whenever I can or otherwise take public transport. These are things I am doing to lower carbon emissions that are impacting and inevitably destroying the beautiful world we live in. Some people may be skeptical about humans' position on climate change, some say it is just a natural occurrence, but I do believe the way we are living is causing some degradation to the natural environment and we need to do what we can to help.

My mum recently turned vegetarian for personal reasons, but without her even knowing she is saving 5000lbs of carbon emissions per year. If she bought food that is organic and locally sourced she would save a few more thousands of pounds of carbon emissions per year. That is what one person can do, it sounds like a lot already, imagine what we could do if many people did the same thing and saved millions of pounds of carbon emissions.

This all came about after I watched An Inconvenient Truth. The documentary opened up my mind to what I was ignoring a little, and Al Gore made me realise that one person can make a change and every person can make their effort count. www.climatecrisis.net is a website referred by the documentary that can give you pointers on how you can save energy and carbon emissions.

Pity

Pity is a complicated thing. It is something i frequently feel when I see everyday people around me. I don't like feeling pity, but what sparked me to write this was when I left work the other day. There is this man I see often around my local shopping centre and he seems to have a neuromuscular problem, he leans forward when he walks and he tends to drag his feet. His legs are a bit like jelly. He also slurs when he talks.

I saw this man when I left work and he happen to be walking the same route as me and I was absolutely disgusted my how many people were staring at him and whispering or laughing. I felt pity for him. I also felt like I was going to be sick because it amazes me how cruel people can be. Most of the time noone wants to be pitied. Maybe he doesn't notice people stare, maybe he doesn't care that they do. I put away my pity and just felt like striking up a conversation with him.

I was imagining how I would feel if I were to have his legs and to have people stare at me like that. Some people walked past and kept as much distance from him as they could. Since we were walking the same route I decided to walk alongside him and I turned my head to see he was looking at me. I said "Hello, how are you?" and he half-smiled, half-said "hi" and answered that he was "good". It wasn't much of a conversation but I would rather greet someone randomly than join the crowds of spectators who like to stare, taunt and treat fellow humans as if they are anything less.

"Pity" by William Blake