If we’re going to live the Live Earth Pledge, the first step is commitment. And who better to lead us in this journey than adventure ecologist and author of The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook, David de Rothschild. Instead of committing himself to the life of luxury that this British heir to a large banking fortune could pursue, de Rothschild is committed to something that all the money in the world cannot buy – a healthy planet.
David de Rothschild is the founder of Adventure Ecology, an organization that promotes environmental action through a combination of education, arts and adventurous expeditions to parts of the world most affected by global warming.
"It was during a polar adventure that I truly began to grasp the scale and complexity of climate change," writes de Rothschild in his introduction to the Survival Handbook. "Standing in the midst of the Arctic, surrounded by 14 million square kilometers of frozen ocean, I felt like nothing more than a speck of dust on the endless horizon of Earth’s most raw, majestic, and environmentally significant ecosystem."
"That expedition, to cross the Arctic Ocean, was halted when warm temperatures made the ice too vulnerable. And it suddenly became clear that thinking of protecting our planet was no longer enough; what we have to think about is our ability to survive on this planet. We need to have the necessary skills in order to so."
So this week marks the beginning of our virtual expedition through de Rothschild’s "77 essential skills to stop climate change – or live through it."
As the leader of this expedition, de Rothschild’s Essential Skill #1 is "Commit," including his directive to "CHILL" – an acronym that will serve as something like our map in this virtual ecological adventure:
Commit this book to memory
Hunt down and destroy your excessive CO2 habits, one by one
Inspire others to do the same
Lobby your leaders to make big changes
Laugh a little – saving the planet is going to be tough, but it doesn’t have to be boring
We may only need five minutes to commit this acronym to memory, but we’ve got all week to fully comprehend what it means. Let’s use these 7 days to observe our habits, making mental note of all the areas in which we can strengthen our commitment to surviving (and stopping) climate change.
Then, on Saturday (or anytime throughout the week), let's share our thoughts in the Comments section of this post.
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In a world where countless individuals, communities, governments, organizations and businesses are committed to Live Earth, how can we – The Watch Team –bring something unique to the experience? That’s the question we’ve been asking ourselves in shifting our focus from the concerts to the movement. And that’s the question that inspired this 77-week virtual expedition through the Global Warming Survival Handbook.
Equally important, though, is our re-tooling of Watch7-7-07.com – a website that continues to attract hundreds of unique visitors each week … a website that represents a date we’ll always celebrate as the beginning of the movement that helped save the world.
All week long we’ve been assessing our commitment to Live Earth, and here is a list of the commitments we’re making through www.Watch7-7-07.com:
- Sifting through dozens of daily environmental news stories, then selecting and posting only those most relevant to global warming and the Live Earth Movement
- Compiling a comprehensive list of links to Live Earth Leaders – the people and organizations that inspire us to go green (from musicians to television programs to politicans), as well as the companies whose products and services make it easy
- Sharing the stories of everyday citizens who are making a difference in their communities – people whose commitments to action will strengthen our own
And if you’d like us to let you know as these commitments of ours are realized, please subscribe to our updates at www.Watch7-7-07.com.
My committment comes to me naturally because of my love of this mother earth. Everyday I value my choices to make it a better tomorrow. I too am looking for the responsive actions to saving the planet. I also have been finding the sychronicity in my life lining up ten-fold by just being awake and aware of the committment it will take from many.
This week I have been reminded my friends and family how important it is to maintain the thought. One of my friends said to me as I was explainging this process "what am
I suppose to do memorize this stuff for a test later?" I thought wow ... the test is everyday ... the exam is life. I want people to speak of environmental change from this Living the Live Earth Pledge. Not just by saying what they feel is the right thing to say at that time, but to physically and actively live the decisions. That is where commit came in for me this week, and I am all aboard for the next 76 weeks.
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