Global Warming

I am a dyed in the wool thinker. Sometimes when no one is watching I mimic Rodin’s famous bronze statue, my hand pushed under my hairy chin, knee propped high, brow furrowed and naked as a blue-jay. I sit and ponder about the things thinkers ponder about, but in jest I digress. I feel like I am a poor bit player in a cheap apocalyptic movie, there is constant banter from scientist that global warming is real, and the angry voices of descent from earth polluting energy companies with poor lil ole me stuck in the middle. I know how this movie ends, I have seen it before.

The earth will not be destroyed by global warming, but our ability to survive and then prosper on the planet will be. Climatologist, meteorologist, and geologist all over the world have all come to one centralized conclusion…global warming is a now event, not a future event, and that we are experiencing rapid climate change. (A meteorite might have killed a vast majority of the dinosaurs, but the rapid climate change afterwards delivered the one, two knock out.) Now what do we do with this information? Do we wait until there are 36 Katrina sized storms flooding as far inland as Birmingham, Alabama, do we wait until there is six feet of snow covering the beaches of Panama City, Florida or do we wait until an intergalactic rescue armada shows up to evacuate us from our own mess? (I honestly don’t know if I would get in a spaceship I think I would take my chances with the new beach in Ozark, Alabama.) But assuredly it appears we are waiting on Deus ex machina, when the answer is clear.

When we were attacked on September 11^th our government grounded all planes. The attack prompted an action, and if you think about it we are under attack by gas guzzling SUV’s, coal burning power plants, and cow burps as well as anything else that is causing our planet to dump eight feet of snow on upstate New York . Does global warming warrant drastic measures? I would think so. If cities the size of Houston and Los Angeles outlawed cars opting instead for mass transit and electric powered vehicles? Those cities would become almost smog free over night. Most assuredly people would adjust after much cussing and fussing.( as well as lose weight) But they will adjust. After that problem is solved we could get down to business on the ever present threat of wayward meteoroids and malignant sun spots.

Vale