Happy New Year! A Better Way?

Happy New Year! A Better Way?

Wow. New Year's Eve already. Time to look back, for a moment, before stepping forward into our new life in 2008.

As I've only been around since October, that makes things a little easier for me. But the pretty much universally-agreed-to calendar year has twelve months. That seems like a lot. But people are busy; they need time to get things done. Hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries. (Beyond "centuries" the reptile brain that both Polar Bears and Humans evolved from, gets unable-to-comprehend, stopped.)

Getting things done and made, I've learned, is what people, for better and for worse, have been evolved to do. Time. Now there's an interest of mine I need to add to my interests lists on my blog profile.

Now, on New Year's Eve, as we are poised to dip our toe into the eighth year of the first decade of this new 21st-century, could it be timely for Homo Sapiens to ask themselves this question: is there a better way?

Just for fun - with this being the new year and all, a time for new understandings - we looked up the definition of Homo Sapiens. Here is what it said: man, woman, human being; the scientific name for the only living species of the genus Homo. Wow. That's special.

Now with me being a Polar Bear, Ursus maritimus, I'm one of several species of Ursus or bears. But Sapiens are the only living species of the genus Homo. Hey man, wow. That makes you dudes, human beings, a one-of-a-kind unique species in your genus: Homo. But I suppose everybody knows that. So what? Well, you've gotta remember I'm a working Polar Bear, just doing my job, trying to figure things out.

So next we looked up sapient. It means wise, sagacious, full of knowledge, discerning. Sagacious? Now that, according to Websters New World Dictionary of the American Language means: keenly perceptive or discerning, shrewd, farsighted in judgment. Discerning, now how about that? Discern: to separate (a thing) mentally from another or others; recognize; make out clearly.

Now, don't you think that having those extra bells and whistles should separate people, Homo Sapiens, out from the rest of us beasts, wouldn't you think? Making you human folks sagacious, that is discerning and farsighted-in-judgment enough, to change and to demand change from our elected leaders, as in: there must be a better way!

Truly yours,

Polar Bear Witness
P.P.S. Please share the bear! www.polarbearwitness.blogspot.com

Solstice Greetings: Air Quality Advisories Ring! Are Ya Listenin'?

Solstice Greetings:
Air Quality
Advisories Ring!
Are Ya Listenin'?

Does it seem a little odd for a Polar Bear to be celebrating a solar holiday like the Winter Solstice? If you've ever enjoyed pictures of me and my relatives basking on an ice flow in the sun - (and there are some wonderful ones in the current issue of Sierra magazine that also features my cousin Marty on the cover, who, I'm sorry to report, has gained weight since being in the zoo, and who, honest, is starting to look a bit like Al Gore . . . but I digress) - you know that we, Ursus maritimus, just like our fellow-bipeds, Homo sapiens, also enjoy and celebrate the sun.

So here we are on the 21st of December, up at 5:30AM, shuffling around in the dark, already enjoying the shortest day of the year, and looking forward to the longest night. But just as I was starting to get excited about that big bonfire they're going to set ablaze at dusk (5:00PM in Olbrich Park), I hear this announcement on the radio that the Department of Natural Resources has issued an "air quality advisory" for southern Wisconsin today. Oh-oh.

I heard that at last year's solstice, on December 21st, it rained. Now this. Just like us charismatic megafauana - (that's what this DNR guy Monona was talking to last night called me) - one thing a fire needs is oxygen. Hum. I'm no scientist, but while humans think they can probably get by without a Polar Ice Cap, they do, I think, understand that oxygen is something we all need to breathe. Is that disappearing now too?

What can we do? What can we do? What can we do? If it is true?
Here's what my friend Judy said: "I just bought an energy-efficient refrigerator. And I replaced all my lights with compact florescents. And, I ride my bike." She nodded once and said as we parted ways, "These are things most people can do."

Judy used to be the City Council member for Madison's "District Six." As a former public official, she would probably encourage everyone to vote in all elections and when we do, to vote in leaders who will help our cities, counties, states, our United States and the world replace anything that now burns fossil fuel with clean-air-renewable energy. Now. Today.

Al Gore recently described carbon emissions as "an open sewer" pouring into and polluting the very air we need to breathe, Earth's fragile atmosphere. Today, on the Winter Solstice, we have an air quality advisory.

In the spirit of the holidays, perhaps its time to put some coal in the stockings of our misguided and replaceable leaders?

Air quality advisories ring! Are ya listenin'?
Truly.
~Polar Bear Witness
P.S. Please share the bear! www.polarbearwitness.blogspot.com
PPS: If you think you might be seeing a "ghost in the window" of the Mermaid Cafe, that's our occasional coffee shop pal, Mike. Mike has provided a public service in Madison by being an outspoken advocate for bikes and better urban land use for years. He has also been busy insulating buildings to reduce energy use!