Confronting a Long-Term Diagnosis

Posted by Shirley Siluk Gregory Apr 12, 2007

What if your doctor told you today that you were very likely to develop a painful, life-altering, chronic disease within the next 20 years, but that you could stave off the worst symptoms in the future by making drastic changes in your lifestyle now?

Would you agree to, for example, stop eating all meat and fish, walk at least four miles every day, and eliminate all processed foods and synthetic chemical products from your life? Or would you find the prescribed sacrifices too difficult to swallow, throw caution to the wind and hope that, in 20 years' time, medical science will havve found a quick cure for your future malady?

That's essentially the choice we're facing today with the two-headed threat of global warming and peak oil. Both of these issues will take years to play out to maximum effect, but we're already feeling those first winds of change: rising ocean levels, shrinking glaciers and ice caps, warmer temperatures and higher gas prices. The question is, are we willing to gamble on our planet's (and our own) future health and well-being in hopes of a fantastic cure down the road? Or are we ready to do the smart thing and start rethinking the way we live and making changes now?

The choice is ours.