Future isn’t worth Russian roulette
It happens every time.
I write something in this space about global warming and people
write back to say
”
not so.
”
Future isn’t worth Russian roulette
It happens every time.
I write something in this space about global warming and people write back to say “not so.”
This time, however, it was a very thoughtful e-mail from Sally Bettencourt of Hollister. She directed me to a web site that is candid about its conservative bent.
Http://www.pushback.com/environment/ is the site, and it’s worth spending some time with. I enjoyed navigating around this virtual forum. As Pushback reminds us, there is anything but unanimity among scientists when it comes to global warming.
I’m returning to the subject because former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” played to modest audiences at a Hollister movie theater last week. I’d written about the movie before the local engagement was announced, because a group of scientists who reviewed it said Gore pretty much got it right.
What occurred to me after studying the Pushback site is that there are almost no scientists who do not acknowledge that it’s getting warm, that glaciers are shrinking, that polar bears are drowning as arctic ice fields shrink.
The disagreement centers around whether human activity is what’s turning up the thermostat on planet Earth.
I would argue that discussion may be irrelevant. Global warming is not about Democrats vs. Republicans, either.
The issue should be that it’s getting warmer, and perhaps, just perhaps, we’re playing a part in that.
Given the consequences, would it not be prudent to change some of our behavior? If you are told a revolver with six chambers contains just one bullet, why not pick it up, point it at your head and squeeze the trigger? The answer is obvious: the consequences of playing the odds with that revolver are simply too dire to take the risk.
Gore’s film describes the inundation of low-lying areas as seas rise, and it’s not limited to remote Pacific atolls. The Netherlands is at risk, Gore asserts. Increasingly violent tropical storms may wreak the havoc visited on New Orleans with increasing frequency.
A warmer planet could quickly become a far-reaching calamity. If the Atlantic’s Gulf Stream current shut down – and some scientists posit that as a possibility – Great Britain’s weather would be closer to that of Moscow. New York City could be gripped by blizzards each winter. The Atlantic fishery would likely collapse.
The point is not whether our pollution is responsible for warming or not. The point is that we’re going through a warming cycle, and it is worth it for all of us to pay attention, to consider what might be done.
Americans have already taken great strides in freeing our rivers of toxins. Our cars burn cleaner than they did 40 years ago, and regulation has turned one-time polluters into better neighbors.
We can do something. That should be reason enough to act.
