Tomyamaguchi’s Weblog

Tweet for the #Climate

This past spring I wrote an article for my Quaker Meeting’s newsletter. In it, I affirm my commitment to tweet at least once per day on climate change. I started on Earth Day and will continue until Election Day in November. So far, I have been able to live up to that commitment, though on some days I have counted retweets. If you believe that climate change is a major issue in this election and that candidates need to address climate and energy issues, I invite you to use your tweeting power to get the word out.

My article in the May 2012 edition of the Strawberry Creek Monthly Meeting newsletter:

Tweet for the Climate

Over the weekend of Earth Day, I was feeling frustrated about the coming election. The two parties have chosen their nominees for the fall, and the serious campaigning for the November election has begun. Unfortunately, what we have been hearing and seeing from those parties is anything but serious. The media has focused on back and forth arguments over which candidate takes better care of dogs or if raising children qualifies as a job. I felt like I was stuck in that old Monty Python “argument” sketch. It appears that everyone is avoiding the issue which most scientists agree is the biggest environmental challenge we face today–climate change. I began to wonder what I could do get our national conversation back to this issue which is being ignored. I tweeted the following that weekend: “Tired of seeing 2012 election campaign going to the dogs. For #Earth Day, I want to see candidates address #climate change & reducing GHGs.” I got some nice responses on Twitter and Facebook, as my tweets also update my Facebook status.

Then I had an idea. What if I tweeted about climate change every day between Earth Day and Election Day? It is not much, but it is something. And doing something is better than doing nothing. Sending one tweet per day is not a difficult commitment to make. It is probably the easiest thing I could do. 

There is, of course, a lot more we can do in our personal lives. The Dime-a-Gallon Dream Fund is one way that we become aware of our own behaviors and work to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel. Yet, we know there need to be changes on a national and global scale. It is easy to feel overwhelmed over what needs to be done. We can’t do everything, but we can do something. And doing something is better than doing nothing. If you have a Twitter account, I invite you to take a few minutes to send one tweet each day for the #climate. I use the hashtag with climate so that others using that as a search term will be able to read my tweets. The idea is to bring attention to this environmental challenge. This can be my cyber witness for the environment. 

Send one tweet per day for the climate. Let our leaders know you will not stay silent. If you want to read my tweets, I am @tomyamaguchi on Twitter.

July 16, 2012 - Posted by tomyamaguchi | Uncategorized