It’s Blog Action Day, 2007.  The purpose of Blog Action Day is to get bloggers to unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind.  In this inaugural year, the issue is the environment.  There are over 15,000 blogs and websites reaching an audience of over 12 million people who are participating, including Google and the United Nations.

So, this post is not intended to preach or influence.  It is what it is:  simply my contribution to the discussion.

My main concern about the environment is the changes we’re seeing in the weather all around the world.  Whether you call it global warming, and subscribe to everything everyone is saying about that, it’s pretty obvious to me that something is changing.   And, I admit to being a bit frustrated over the fact that our elected officials don’t seem to be as concerned about the environment as a lot of the rest of us.

In fact, the EPA prefers the term “climate change” rather than global warming – evidently because climate change encompasses a number of causal factors such as changes in ocean circulation and changes in the Earth’s orbit.  On the other hand, they also say:

• “Scientists are certain that human activities are changing the composition of the atmosphere, and that increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases will change the planet’s climate. But they are not sure by how much it will change, at what rate it will change, or what the exact effects will be.”

Personally, I don’t recall a lot of talk about changing ocean circulation or orbital changes.  And, I don’t really care what the exact effects will be.  Messing with something that’s been working for all of recorded history just doesn’t sound like a good idea.

So, I’m hoping our governments at all levels will increase their focus on the issue of the environment, and I’ll place a lot of emphasis on that issue when casting my vote in the next elections. 

I tried to think of ways to tie this post about the environment in with real estate marketing.   Here are some of the ideas that came to mind:

• Save trees by increasing Internet Marketing and reducing direct mail.
• Reduce the time your car is on the road by providing links to detailed online listings with virtual tours, and encouraging your clients to only visit those homes they’re really interested in.
• Establish a home office – real estate lends itself extremely well to working from home, and you’ll reduce the carbon emissions you produce whenever you can avoid going into the office.

Here are some useful resources that address the issue:

• Things we as individuals can do to help stop global warming
• The EPA’s website on climate change
• An initiative of the Sierra Club called Cool Cities  – visit this site to find out what your city is doing
• There’s a number of resources to learn more about environmental issues on the BlogActionDay.org website