What was my trigger?

The thing that made me wake up from my perfectly happy life, despite a small nagging in the back of my head that I was being sucked in by the media, was my new baby nephew. He was born in Oct 06, the first grandchild on my side of the family, so a very special little boy. I was in the delivery suite all night with my brother and my sister in law just waiting his arrival. Anyway, when he finally appeared after much huffing and puffing, I couldn't believe how much love I felt for him, there and then.

After a few days, and lots of cuddles later, it dawned on me. In 40 years time when he is the adult and I am just shuffling out, what I would say to him if he ever asked me:

'When you knew what effect your lifestyle was having on the planet, what did you do?'

I knew at that point I couldn't look him in the eye and say:

'"They" (insert who you like here, USA, Government, big business', etc) should sort it out, how can I do anything if "they" don't pull their weight, blah, blah'

I would be ashamed of myself if I couldn't say:

'Do you know what, I did everything I could to make the world better, little by little'

Here endeth the sermon.