object: humidifier

We're such delicate creatures, really.

We require a very specific temperature and humidity range to be comfortable and healthy, but rather than living exclusively where those requirements are met by the local climate, we've designed an increasingly sophisticated series of contraptions to maintain a semi-tropical atmosphere indoors in all seasons and all climates: stoves and furnaces, fans and air conditioners, humidifiers and dehumidifiers. The result is that a relatively expensive (relative to the average home in, say Bangladesh) home with modern climate-control appliances can provide the same interior environement whether it's in Miami or Helsinki.

Strange, then, that we should be so willing to ignore the effects of exterior, global climate change. It's not a controversy anymore unless you work for an energy company: human actions are changing our global climate, and those changes have and continue to encourage the spread of certain diseases, create unpredictable, devastating weather patterns, and may eventually have an even more sigificant impact.

I don't want to preach. I was going to write about how much I love humidity, about how much I love water on my skin and how healthy I feel when I step out into warm, humid air. But every time that I turn on an air conditioner this summer, I want to remember that things are changing. That it won't be the same for my children. There are still things to be done to prevent total disaster — and I want to incorporate the awareness of those thing, those objectives, into my daily routines.

Do you live in the US? Write to Bush and tell him that his decision to back out of the Kyoto Protocol is unacceptable.