Local woman presents global warming poster to village

Warwick — The phrase, “Think Globally, Act Locally,” was coined by the founder of the group, Friends of the Earth, in 1969. Today, many people are thinking globally and acting locally to help save the environment. With the release and high praise of “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore’s Academy Award-nominated documentary about global warming, many people are looking at how their everyday lives impact the planet. Jeanette Nebus is one of them. Nebus, a retired nurse, grew up in Warwick and now lives in Middletown. She became interested in the impact of environmental pollutants a decade ago. When she saw Gore’s documentary, she felt she had to do something. What she did was educate. Nebus created a large poster describing global warming and how it affects our environment and our bodies. “When I saw Al Gore’s documentary, it inspired me to do something,” said Nebus. “I had already done the center of the poster about the impacts of pollution on our health. Then when I saw ‘An Inconvenient Truth;’ it inspired me to do the global warming part with the greenhouse effect.” Global warming is the increased average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere and its oceans. There are several causes of global warming, including solar activity, volcanic emissions, and greenhouse gases. The causes are both natural and from humans. Nebus’s framed poster includes how pollution enters the body and what effects it has. It shows the polar ice caps melting, causing polar bears to swim farther for a home. Melting ice caps mean more open water, which absorbs the sun’s heat rather than reflecting it. Warmer water means less ice, which may increase the water levels throughout the world. “Climate changes are occurring faster and more furiously than ever,” said Nebus, “causing rapid changes in our weather. The U.S., China and India have ignored the Kyoto Protocol, which called for industrialized nations to lower their gas emissions by five percent by 2012. There are things we can do, the sooner the better, to help this.” Those include getting involved locally. Nebus said we should call our county and state officials and ask how they are prepared for the climate change. Residents should form a task force to help reduce emissions. And people should look for alternative power, through wind, solar, geothermal, and water energy. The Village Board was impressed with Nebus’s work, as was Gore. Nebus sent a copy of the poster to the former vice president of the United States, who in turn sent her a thank you note. “We must continue to work together in this effort not only for the future of our children, but for the future of our planet,” Gore wrote in his letter. Mayor Michael Newhard said the poster will be hung in the village meeting room for all to see. “We all have an obligation to ourselves, our children, our grandchildren, all future generations, and to our planet,” Nebus said.