Lori was spot on about The Inconvenient Truth. We saw it last night and I think it's safe to say we were both blown away. Some of the graphs he presents are astounding. Lori came away disheartened, but I think this is a challenge that we can take on and win.
I look at this kinda like recycling. I first heard about recycling when I was a kid at an afternoon BBQ party that my parents threw. As I was putting the cans in the trash a guy walked up to me and told me about recycling and asked to take the cans and bottles with him. I asked my Dad about it later and he said the guy was a loon and that recycling was crazy socialist nonsense. And that's the way I thought about it for years until we got back from Australia and Lori just did the right thing with recycling and I finally got my head screwed on straight and I now do the right thing.
Now, my Dad is a right winger, and he had the same response that the right does to all new ideas; attack the messenger, diminish the idea as, your choice, communist, socialist, gay, or secular. Same thing happened with smoking bans, seatbelts, slightly more fuel efficient cars, etc. etc. Now it's global warming. And no, there is no dispute in the scientific community, it's happening. And the response from the right is the same as it always is; Gore is a loon, and global warming is some socialist scare tactic.
It's apparently our god-given right to consume as much as we possibly can. Which is funny since both conservationist and conservative have the same root word, conserve. And somehow conservatives want to do anything but conserve our resources. In fact, they revel in huge automobiles like Hummers.
Anyway, all I hear from the right on this is attack the messenger, so that's a clear sign to me that it's true, global warming is happening. Oh, yeah, and the overwhelming scientific support helps too.
Posted by jherr at June 9, 2006 09:49 AMI haven't seen the movie. I don't know if I will. I still haven't even seen Farenheit 911 yet. But I do believe global warming is happening.
I asked my brother-in-law, who is a Geologist for Big Oil, his thoughts on the subject and he told me that the earth's climate is cyclical and that we go through deep freezes (ice ages) and periods of extreme heat and that now we are heading out of the "normal/human life sustainable" range and into a heating era. And there's nothing we can do about it. The earth is bigger than us.
I believe that. And I also believe that the process takes hundreds of thousands of years - and that we may be speeding it up by miniscule amounts, but we're not going to reverse it. We need to design technology to help us survive, and future generations, too. We aren't going to destroy the planet. The planet will survive - just without human life.
We do need alternative fuel sources. But even if the U.S. curbs our consumption, how do we get China and India on board? They're just starting to taste wealth and a bit of capitalism. And I'm sure it's yummy. But if the technology is there and I affordable, I'm in!
For example, my 10-year old SUV has over 130,000 miles on it. I'm ready to get something else. I'm looking at the Ford Escape, which offers a hybrid model. The difference in price is over $10K. That's a deciding factor for me, as I'm sure it is with most people on a budget.
Have I diminished the idea enough yet? Cause I'm ready to attack the messenger now. Al Gore didn't win his home state of TN in the 2000 election.
Okay, I'm done. But if you can sway me, you're well on your way to swaying the right wing.
Oh wait - Hummer discontinued its H1 model - supposedly because it had too much of a detrimental effect on the environment.
Okay - now I'm done.
Posted by: Jacqueline at June 9, 2006 12:04 PMAl completely debunked the cyclical argument. He showed 650,000 years of CO2 data from Antarctic ice. There were cycles, and the CO2 directly corresponded to the temperature. And the CO2 in the last ten years was completely out of the cycle. Ask your brother-in-law about that.
As to Al Gore, he won the election of 2000.
As to the Hummer, I can buy an H1 today. What's your point?
Posted by: jherr at June 9, 2006 01:27 PMI will ask him about the Al Gore movie. Although, I doubt he's seen it yet either, since he has, like, six wells drilling right now. But I will ask him.
Al Gore won? Bwahahahahah! Not Tennessee!! And not according to history.
The point on the Hummer is that it's not selling well and the company has discontinued it. Maybe people are getting the point.
Posted by: Jacqueline at June 9, 2006 01:58 PMOk. Glad to have you on our side on the global warming front. Good for you! We will make a liberal out of you yet.
Posted by: jherr at June 9, 2006 02:16 PMI did vote for Clinton in 1992, so I'll never say never . . . but I don't think so!
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