My family and I spent yesterday evening at a lecture called The Challenge of Climate Change, which was given by Dennis Dimick, editor of National Geographic, as part of their National Geographic Live Lecture series.

I'm on the fence about Climate Change. I know that is a hideously unpopular thing to say, and I'm prepared to take my lashes for it, but I'm sure I'm not alone. Now, I am not prepared to relinquish human responsibility for the state of affairs in our ozone, oceans, lungs and everything else. I, frankly, think that we are behaving like petulant, arrogant and destructive children and we ought to, if nothing else, mind our manners and be better guests on this planet. No two ways about that. But I am also not willing to take ALL the responsibility for the current climate change situation, as I really do believe that the planet always has and always will cycle dramatically and it will probably survive us - even if we don't!

But I do have a gnawing and nagging belief that there is no good reason for us to live the way we're living. So I'm always happy when I encounter an argument that helps me sort through why I think that - and it's a bonus if it ties into a larger issue (like climate change) and behavioral changes that are easy to make.

Thus, I loved Dennis Dimick's lecture last night. It wasn't the doom and gloom patronizing and punitive climate change lectures that we're used to. It was a really logical practical look at real changes, and real stupidity, and real solutions.

My first "ah ha" moment came as Dennis - a humbly endearing professorial type with a vague resemblance to everyone's favorite uncle - shared a few photos and tales of his idyllic childhood on a bucolic farm in Oregon. This is a guy who grew up deeply connected to the planet. He saw the impact of weather (which is how children first grasp the concept of climate) on the farm life. They grew food, raised animals, and lived close to the land. So it is no surprise that he developed a deep concern for the planet.

As I thought of my daughter's peers at school, I couldn't help but wonder how many of them have ever really spent time IN NATURE. Not outside at a park, but camping in the forests, farming the land, seeing where food comes from and how we're all connected to the planet.

My daughter is lucky - we have chickens and bees and orchards at our home, we know the cows our raw milk comes from, and the farmers who raised and butchered the meat that is in our freezer. But for most kids, food comes from the grocery store. When we started our "Little Farm In The City" way of life, it was for health reasons. Whole, natural, unprocessed food is just healthier for our bodies. It hadn't occurred to me that it was better for the planet too. (If you want help eating local and natural, the Eat Wild site is a great tool.)

One of the more entertaining and "ah-ha-ing" segments of the lecture last night was a 3-minute film clip that had been produced by National Geographic called "Carbon Footprint of a Cheeseburger." As part of their Six Degrees film project, Jamais Cascio broke down the carbon emissions of this definitively American cuisine.

Apparently, the average American eats 3 cheeseburgers a week. (Average, meaning some eat 6, some eat none.)

Each one of those cheeseburgers involves a variety of processes that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, including: making feedstock that is fed to cattle, raising the cattle, slaughtering it in large plants, chemically treating it (if we're talking about mass market meat), turning milk into cheese, industrial farming of lettuce, onions and tomatoes, industrial processing of the condiments, the packaging of all the meat, cheese, produce and condiments, the shipping all over the planet of all the ingredients, the cold storage of the meat and cheese, the preparation of the cheeseburger that is then served in a fast food restaurant using lots of electricity that was arrived at by a hungry consumer in a car. Hmmmmm.

The result of all that is, according to Cascio, "the greenhouse gas emissions arising every year from the production and consumption of cheeseburgers is roughly the amount emitted by 6.5 million to 19.6 million SUVs. There are now approximately 16 million SUVs currently on the road in the US."

Cheeseburgers are worse for our environment than SUVs.

You can read more in-depth analysis on other sites, but it drives home the point that, although we focus on things like Hummers, it's the cumulative impact of our lifestyles that have the most destructive impact on our planet and our collective health.

Let's not write off the car yet, but the car is a symptom, not a cause. It is a symptom of an increasingly fragmented society that is built on the "life is elsewhere" modern foundation. Schools are four neighborhoods away, work is a one-hour commute, groceries come from other continents, clothes should be washed and dried in a couple hours (while fluffy and good-smelling) etc....

We consume a lot of power. Most of the damage that we are causing is inextricably intertwined with our need to use power. Obviously, using it is part of the problem. But we use it in order to get it, and process it and manufacture it. We use enormous amounts of energy to get at the raw materials necessary to produce more energy to feed our habits. Huh?

And what do we need all that power for? Oh, that's right, to manufacture all the goods that we are all addicted to. We could do the Cheeseburger audit on almost everything that you see in your home. Now, did you need it? Don't get me wrong, I'm watching my big screen plasma TV as I write this, I'm not saying we should be Amish, but what if we each gave up something like ¼ of our goods. Bought ½ as many clothes, fewer electronic gadgets, fewer decorations for our homes?

I was curious, so I played the Consumer Consequences game that was created by American Public Media. The game is aimed at showing you how everything that you do (even my addiction to coffee) impacts the environment. I am one of the "greenest" people I know. If everyone on the planet lived like me, according to the Consume Consequences game, we would need 3.4 Planet Earths in order to be sustainable. Wow.

How does my love of coffee and shoes and my iPod (all of which I love) impact the environment? It gets back to the energy thing. It takes energy to make all of those things. To package them. To ship them. To operate them. And, if you look at that whole cycle of energy extraction and consumption, something becomes very clear. Our need for power is what's killing us.

The waste from power production is a primary polluter, we all know that. But what we may be paying less attention to is the fact that in order to produce power, we are cutting down trees - whether it's to access mines or the leveling of rainforests to plant soybeans and corn to produce biofuels. Why do the trees matter - especially if you're not a spotted-owl loving tree-hugger? Trees are, simply put, the lungs of our planet. They absorb and clean a lot of the pollutants and keep things in balance. So, just for fun, try taking out about ¾ of your lungs, just use a coffee knife or something, and see how well you function.

Nevermind, that's probably a bad idea, but it's something to think about. Every time we consume something we don't need, we're taking a little bit of our collective lungs. That seems unnecessary to me.

Now, the good news is that we in the U.S. do not pollute nearly as much as they do in places like China. Phew! Oh, wait, what is behind all that production and pollution in China? Oh, my coffee maker, my new shoes and my iPod. You mean, all that pollution over there is to support the industry that creates the products that we're buying over here. Yup! The added kicker is that a lot of the power that fuels the plants in which Chinese factories are producing goods destined for the U.S. comes from coal that we are mining here in the U.S. and using fossil fuels to ship over there. Kinda makes your head hurt, doesn't it. (Cue the Supertramp song, "take a little bit, take a little bit of my lungs for you....")

Look, I'm an urban girl. I'm as modern as they come edging toward "hip" on my good days. I'm not about to become a hairy hippie type, and I'm not proposing that you do either. But it's pretty clear to me that we could all make some simple changes that make big differences.

1. Transportation - Carpool, which is a nice way to also stay connected to people you work with and live near. Bike or walk, which is an excellent way to get healthier and fit while helping the planet. Public transit is a great chance to read a book or listen to tunes during your commute rather than develop a chronic case of road rage. (Though I will admit that in Seattle, public transit is a joke at best, and I know we're not alone. VOTE for public transit people, we need to change this.)

2. Consumption - Before buying anything, ask yourself if you really need it. If you decide you want it, ask yourself where it came from and how it was produced. By green as much as possible. Does it cost a little more? Yes. But if you're buying less, you are more likely to be able to afford to buy well. When it comes to food, especially, buy local.

3. Energy in our homes - Use less, and use green. I know, you're sick of hearing about compact fluorescent bulbs, but replacing a single incandescent bulb with a CFL will keep a half-ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere over the life of the bulb. If everyone in the U.S. used energy-efficient lighting, we could retire 90 average size power plants. Saving electricity reduces CO2 emissions, sulfur oxide and high-level nuclear waste. But beyond the bulb: turn down the thermostat, only run full loads in washing machines and dishwashers (well, maybe not dishwashwers ), turn out the lights when you're not in the room.... And so on.

But mostly, pay attention. Look, I'm down with banning the Hummer, really (and yes, I know that saying that means I'll never get their ad dollars,) but it's not that simple. This is not somebody else's problem. It's our cheeseburgers, iPods, TV's etc.... I'm guessing that if we all bought local food, and half as many consumer products, the planet wouldn't even notice if we all drove Hummers. (And, it's worth noting, that my iPod, which I love, allows me to download media digitally - no packaging, shipping, storage required!)

I do believe that the planet has cycles that have existed LONG before we inflicted our bad-behavior on it. But I also see no reason whatsoever why we have to move in and trash the place. I know that if I had a houseguest who came in and tore down my walls, broke all my stuff and was utterly destructive and disrespectful, I would kick them out and never invite them back. I suppose that may be where we're headed, and I guess we deserve it.

But I'm an optimist. We're making this mess, and we can clean it up.