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In Anne Strieber’s new diary, she talks about New Year’s resolutions and about how much change it’s possible to achieve (and why it’s such a shame that we can’t change the weather!) If you love Anne’s diaries (as well as our incredible radio shows), make a resolution to support this site in 2009. It’s easy to do, just subscribe today!

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Can we make a New Year’s resolution that will help save our climate?

The January 2nd edition of the Independent asked this question of various climate experts and got a wide variety of replies. Jim Lovelock, the author of the Gaia theory, says he never had any faith that the Kyoto agreement would work. The Independent quotes him as saying, “I strongly agree that we now need a ‘plan B,’ where a geoengineering strategy is drawn up in parallel with other measures to curb CO2 emissions. However, climate change is an earth system problem and the UN is not a suitable body to host or organize it.”

Researcher Steve Siems disagrees and says, “We need to try Plan A over and over and over again before even contemplating Plan B.”
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…but no one will take the prisoners! – If Obama follows up on his promise to close Guantanamo prison in Cuba, what will he do with the detainees? 225 prisoners are still being held there, 60 of whom have already been cleared for release. The Bush administration has asked Australia to take some of them in?two times in one year?but has been refused both times.

BBC News quotes deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard as saying, “Assessing those requests from a case-by-case basis, they had not met our stringent national security and immigration criteria and have been rejected.” The State Department has asked about 100 other countries to accept prisoners as well. They want to clear Guantanamo over the next two years.
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So often, when we make New Year’s resolutions, we concentrate on giving up our vices, but what we REALLY want is to become someone new. In in my case, this would be someone who loses weight effortlessly and has an exquisite complexion, high cheekbones, tiny ears (mine resemble those of Alfred E. Newman of “Mad” magazine) and a thick, abundant head of hair I could flip around. When I lost 100 pounds, over three years of effort, I got a new body, but I have to work constantly in order to keep it and alas, the complexion and hair improvements did not automatically follow.
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