Radical love, act three

In response to my recent column -- Radical Love in the Age of Retirement -- my friend Allison informed me that she was disappointed. She thought the column was going to be about retired seniors having wild sex.

This might have more to say about Allison's fantasies for her future than my intentions.

Actually my column was inspired by my realization that simple acts of love can be "radical"; how something as ordinary as making a salad with care and love can change the world.

I revisit this topic because I have just seen "An Inconvenient Truth," the documentary about Al Gore's mission of raising our consciousness about the dangers of global warming.

Al Gore, whatever you may think of him politically, inspires with his thoroughness, his "sciency" approach to the subject, his passion for the cause. His is not a political campaign, it is a moral one. He inspires me in particular for representing "radical love." Radical love, as I have come to understand it, is love that doesn't operate out of fear, but through actions and truth. Al Gore is one radical dude.

We can be radical, too. And, as the end credits of the documentary make plain, we can radically make a difference, one kilowatt at time, one gallon of gas at a time, to solve the crisis of global warming.

Consider these simple acts of "radical love" (suggested by climatecrisis.com) that you can do for our Mother Earth:

Change how we live at home

Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb. Move your thermostat down 2 degrees in winter and up 2 degrees in summer. Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket. Use less hot water. Air-dry your clothes half the year. Only run your dishwasher when there's a full load and use the energy-saving setting.

By implementing these easy changes, you can save up to 5,000 pounds of carbon dioxide (the main contributor to global warming) in a year. By unplugging electronics from the wall when you're not using them we can keep 18 million tons of carbon out of our atmosphere every year!

Put 'green' into action

Buy organic. Avoid heavily packaged products, support local farmers markets. Buy fresh foods instead of frozen. Eat less meat. And plant a tree. It will serve all of us by absorbing a full ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.

Change the way you move

Reduce the number of miles you drive by walking, biking, carpooling or taking mass transit wherever possible. Keep your car tuned up. (If just 1 percent of car owners properly maintain their cars, nearly a billion pounds of carbon dioxide will be kept out of the atmosphere.)

Buy fuel-efficient cars. You can save 3,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every year if your new car gets only 3 miles per gallon more than your current one.

I may be writing about global warming, but I could just as easily be writing about the war in Iraq or what is happening at your child's or grandchild's school. Anything that affects our future individually as well as globally requires a "radical love."

Love is a radical force because it is the only force that can truly effect change. To quote historian Arnold Toynbee: "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil."

For more information on what you can do to take action on global warming, visit www.climatecrisis.com. To calculate your impact on the environment, go to www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator.

Dr. Michael O.L. Seabaugh, a Cape Girardeau native, is a clinical psychologist who lives and works in Santa Barbara, Calif. Contact him at mseabaugh@semissourian.com For more on the topics covered in Healthspan, visit his Web site: www.HealthspanWeb.com