Roadkill, Rattlesnakes & Global Warming

I believe our planet is experiencing global warming caused by polluting the air. Since I’m writing this blog as an ordinary citizen and not a scientist, I’ll relate what I observed, not facts that support research pointing to global warming.

My observations:
I live in central Texas, where we’ve experienced a very warm winter this year. The temperature exceeded 90 degrees as I jotted down ideas for this blog; very warm for February. Due to no cold enough weather to either kill animals, or cause them to find places to hibernate until the weather improves, we have a substantial increase in the animal population this winter. More animals are reproducing. I’m seeing a lot more rabbits on my property and roadkill of skunks and snakes. We had an incident within 15 miles of my home where a rattlesnake was found in the bathroom of someone’s home, then over 20 more rattlesnakes were found on the property. I’ve also heard that farms have a bumper crop of rats this year. I’d rather nature–colder weather–kept down the population of snakes, rats and even skunks.

These incidents tell me that we have to become more vigilant in our efforts to combat the pollutants going into our atmosphere. We need to drive less and use fuels that pollute less.

If you disagree with me about global warming, I don’t mind hearing about why you think our temperatures are changing.

Don't Wake Me Up

I have a dream….That all able-bodied people I know will pick up an average of one piece of trash a day. If they keep their eyes open and don’t see one, hallelujah!

Buy American & Save Energy

I’m fully supportive of our new President Donald Trump’s promise to bring jobs back to America. I realize that computerization and robots have eliminated many of the factory jobs people worked at years ago but we need any jobs we can get. And, think of the fuel savings if goods sold in the U.S. traveled less miles to reach the consumer.

The fuel savings also applies to imports. We should import everything we can from nearby countries like Canada and Mexico. Why buy things from such remote areas as Japan and China when we could get comparable items from neighboring countries?

By the way, this also applies to food and drinks. We can normally find that almost everything we usually eat is grown or produced less than 100 miles from our hometown grocer. If we read labels, we can buy produce, milk and baked goods from farms and bakeries near our home. Farmer’s markets are good places to find locally grown veggies.

Buy local: it will also cut down on the pollution created by hauling items long distances. Don’t assume something is made in America just because it’s made by a company with headquarters in the U.S. My car, a Toyota, was manufactured in Kentucky even if the Toyota headquarters is in Japan. Look inside the driver’s door of the vehicle to see where it was manufactured.  

There are items–like shoes–where we have little choice if we don’t purchase those “made in China”. And, I don’t always succeed in finding things I want made in America. But I try, thinking it will keep people who live nearby employed.