Tea for thought

 Jamie Yem
I wonder what kind of tea is in the picture I've been using for my background. I would prefer green tea, but the fact the tea here is red makes it more interesting. Perhaps it's hibiscus or passion fruit tea. Tangy, but refreshing.

On a different note, global warming has always scared the daylights out of me. I've often wondered why my major is Japanese and not Environmental Studies. My excuse was always that I hate science and math, but now I'm thinking it's really because I was scared. I still am scared, but this isn't something I want to run away from. Because even if I don't study it, it will still bite me in the ass sooner or later. Better face it and fight it.

In one of the classes I'm taking at Sophia University, we're reading up on all the important literature on global climate change, and it's more than a little intense and extremely eye opening. In the introduction and first chapter of his book Heat, George Monbiot explains that if we don't make major changes NOW (as in TODAY, so start riding a bike, stop wasting water, and murder your inner consumer in cold blood by lunchtime please), global warming will start feeding itself and we won't be able to do anything to stop it.

It might even be too late, but any actions we make now will still affect the future. And when I say "future," I'm not talking about 2100 when most of us will be safe and sound in our graves. Because at the rate this is going, that fatal turning point is 2030. In twenty years. I'm going to be 40 going on 41 then. That is not a long time from now, at all.

Scary, right? Maybe this is what people are talking about when they say "face your fears."