It seems that since the Al Gore Movie came out there has been more and more press about him and the whole global warming thing. As weird as it is seeing this boring guy in all these magazine photo shoots I wonder if it will actually make a difference. The whole global warming idea that they started pushing in the 80's needs to be supplemented by science and policy if it is too be more than what now seems to be a ghost story that conservationists tell little kids.
Since global warming is a process it is different from most things to be concerned about, because it has no beginning or end. An asteroid hurtling towards earth is much easier to be concerned about. Once you see it coming you know you only have a certain amount of time to hire bruce willis and ben affleck to get tough and make out with chicks before it is too late. Once its too late, the asteroid is hit, whats done is done and youu have no choice but to try and find a way to deal with the consequences. If global warming was this easy to deal with it would be treated a lot differently. If everyone knew when it would cause its damage, how it would cause the damage, and how to stop the damage then it would already be done. But everything about global warming is left up for discussion, the facts are inconclusive depending on whose side you're on, and the solution are as easy as a carpool lane, and as hard as rebuilding the infrastructure of half the world.
The most disputed fact is whether or not its actually happening. When people point to recent rises in temperature and weather changes its easy to say its just part of a natural cycle. Assuming of course that the natural cycle is someting that was designed by nature for people. There is the chance that the natural cycle could result in an inhospitable climate.
People also say if it is happening there is nothing that you can do. That the system is too big for us to make any difference. Considering the moon we've walked on, the diseases we've cured and all the crap for sale at bestbuy now, its safe to say that we can do a lot of stuff. This argument must be based upon something else. Not that we couldn't come up with solutions to global warming through technology, but that our technology has had no difference on the warming of the globe. That C02 is harmless and our use of it has no consequence, smog is good for the environment, and whatever. It seems like this is essentially just putting your head in the sand like an ostrich in distress.
2 comments:
despite the moon shot and best buy, we can never enforce environmental policies against other nations. we can barely keep our own companies in compliance. the objective is an exercise in futility anyway. in a few more thousand years, another ice age will happen to us, and half the world's population--the poorer half, of course--will perish because:
(a) they lack the resources to relocate and survive the harsh hyper-winters that will ensue
(b) the affluent and powerful will prevent them from moving back to the temperate areas.
the result, global warming-advanced or not, is the same. truckloads of people will become merely another grain of sand in the mass of humanity that has already passed across earth.
Yes, there will be a time where the earth will become uninhabitable and plenty of people, rich and poor will be killed. The rich and, if the rich are charitable, the poor who are left will die very quickly as well without the readily available food, medicine and infrastructure that survival today depends on. Exposure to diseases without regular medicine, and the death of the plants and animal species that we know are safe to eat will leave very few people to form a society in this new climate. They may not be able to control the environment, but I'm pretty sure they will wish that our generation did. The only things that could cause this kind of devastation is a horrible disease, nuclear WWIII, the premise of that ben affleck movie, and the book of revelations. For all of these things there are back up plans. I'm pretty sure we're even working on something in case of alien take over. Yet for global warming the country at large doesn't even think it can happen. People who work on it aren't just considered weird, as most scientist are, they are cut off from government support. Even though it may result in being futile, it would be nice if we were at least hopeful and took this kind of seriously. If we approached it with just a little bit of the frenzy, and effort, and activity that surrounds ebola, nuclear weapons, and NASA's work.
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