Global Warming Finds a Cold Response in Some

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his NOT understanding it."
- Upton Sinclair



A few days ago, I was sitting inside Togos for lunch. For some reason, the topic of the heat came up, because it was freakin' 150 degrees outside, and I was glad we were in air conditioning. I joked that if Global Warming got any worse, I was going to move to Iceland. Providing that it hadn't turned into "Water-Land."

I then mentioned that although I haven't seen the movie An Inconvenient Truth, it is the kind of thing that scares the living tar out of me. The movie, for those of you who haven't heard about it, is the latest project of Al Gore. The former vice-president has been travelling the country making this speech, trying to use his ex-vice-presidency as a publicity tool to get Americans to understand how important and serious a threat Global Warming is. You can see the tailer here.

I realized I said all this because I wanted to inform the people at the table that this was an important issue, and that I have a pretty passionate stance on it.

I mention this because one of the magazines I subscribe to, Wired, just did a cover story on Al Gore two issues ago. Wired is a magazine that examines science and technology and American culture, and how the three converge and collide. I mention this because the editors said that the reader mail they got from that issue was some of the most angry and vile stuff they've ever received. This from Wired's editors:

Several readers defaced pages and sent them in. Others wrote to tell us they’d ripped up the cover. That’s plain rude. So’s this: “I thank God every day that this unstable individual did not become president of the United States.” A dentist said that.

Apparently, people hate - and I am referring to a special brand of vitriol here - Al Gore and his message. In the past few weeks, I personally have been in conversations which people have made the following points:

• There's a lot of bad science on both sides
• Those environmentalists have an agenda.
• Look, I don't buy the idea that we as humans have the ability to change the climate of Earth. We can no more raise the global temperature than we can move the Earth closer to the sun. The idea that we can change the climate of the Earth and destroy all life - it's absurd.
• God is in control. We can't harm the Earth.
• There is data that says that the ice cores at the poles are actually getting bigger and denser
• I just take offense at the idea of some politician saying that because I drive an SUV, I'm destroying the planet.

I'd like to address these points of contention.

In terms of humans not being able to affect our environment, frankly that's an untenable position. I grew up in Ohio. Because of industrial waste, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland was not only so polluted that it is unsafe to drink and so toxic that fish cannot live in it, but at one point it actually caught fire. Rivers are not supposed to be able to burn.

Also, I was thinking about the US Nuclear Weapons arsenal alone. What would happen if there were a nuclear war? It seems to me pretty common sense that humans can EASILY destroy lives and eco-systems and if we wanted, we could kill nearly every living thing on earth.

In the film, Gore shows pictures of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the famous picture "Earthrise" taken my American astronauts. Gore shows the same picture 30 years apart. There is no longer any snow on Kilimanjaro and there are whole ice flows that have melted, whole lakes and rivers that have disappeared.

In regard to the scientific accuracy of the film, FOX News reported yesterday that top National Climate scientists are giving Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" rave reviews for accuracy in reporting the scientific facts. You can read the stoy here. You also have to factor in the idea that oil companies and energy companies pay scientists to come to conclusions that minimize the culpability of energy industry. For example, the Washington Post reported recently that the oil company Exxon donates millions of dollars to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), who said that global warming is "akin to an alien invasion."

Gore makes this claim in the movie:
"There is no controversy about these facts," he says in the film. "Out of 925 recent articles in peer-review scientific journals about global warming, there was no disagreement. Zero."

I want to say this as respectfully as possible, to everyone who believes this: you are wrong.

1. Global warming is real.
2. It is caused by human activity.
3. Mankind and its governments must begin immediate action to halt and reverse it.
4. If we do nothing, in about 10 years the planet may reach a "tipping point" and begin a slide toward destruction of our civilization and most of the other species on this planet.
5. After that point is reached, it would be too late for any action.

I was talking to my father-in-law about this, and told him about the conversation and how in some ways, it frightened me even more than global warming. Here is what he wrote.

I figured that if an average person held out his or her hands it might reach about 5 feet (probably less given the average is between you—probably six feet—and Justus—probably two feet, but hey this is back of the envelop stuff). At any rate, it would take about 1,000 people holding hands to reach a mile.

• The circumference of the world is 25,000 miles.

• The population of the US just turned 300,000,000. If all of us held hands, we would go around the world 12 times!

• If everyone in China (population 1.3 billion) held hands, they would go around the world 52 times!!

• If everyone in the world (population 6.2 billion) held hands, that would be 250 times around the world!!!

Now let’s think about the impact. According to the US Department of Energy and EPA, Americans put out 6.6 tons (!!!) of greenhouse gases per person, per year (driving cars, heating homes, running appliances, etc.). Those numbers can be verified here.

Given that the population of the US is 300,000,000, that’s 2 billion tons (or 4 trillion pounds) of emissions that go into the atmosphere every year from US citizens. Tell me that there’s no way that can have an impact on our planet.

What will happen when China and India (population 1.1 billion) catch up with us in the emission of greenhouse gases? If the World’s population can reach around the world 250 times, just think what impact their pollution can have on the environment.

I think because people can’t comprehend the magnitude of the world’s population or they can’t see the immediate impact of a car’s exhaust on the air we breathe, that they just can’t imagine that humans can have an impact on the planet. Or perhaps they think God will save us from ourselves and would never let the world fall apart, whatever humans do to it.

Go see "An Inconvenient Truth" with a friend, loved one, or someone you hope will still be alive in this world in 50 years.

Then do something.

There was a time in the 60s when people - Christians even - went around saying that the Civil Rights Movement was a big waste of energy. There were people who passionately defended segregation.

Is this another one of those issues? Will history look back at anyone who argues on the other side of this issue and shake their heads, wondering how in the world someone ever took that position.

Makes you think.