Doom's Day

In my life, I have a fairly even mix of liberal and conservative friends. It drives me crazy. One side will give me a series of convincing arguments in regards to a particular issue, and I'll be firm in that until I talk to my other friends, who have their own convincing arguments. Choosing sides is very difficult. Will I forever be a fence-rider? Who knows.

Anyways, global warming (or "global climate change" if you're the GOP) keeps me in a perpetual tailspin. By and large, everyone believes it's occurance is a stone-cold fact, and it is a result of our abuse of fossil fuels and the carbon emissions they produce. Anyone who argues otherwise is not perceived in the most positive light. My problem is that those who call global warming a media myth have some convincing arguments.

I read in an issue of Time that Mars is actually experiencing a loss of glaciers. Considering that it doesn't have to worry about fossil fuels, the only thing that could be causing it is the Sun (which would logically effect us as well). According to Forbes, although the global temperature has increased by a degree over the past century, almost half of that occurred before 1940. Carbon emissions then were no where near the levels of today. What caused that change? Furthermore, a few centuries ago, the weather was actually warmer than it is today. And unfortunately for Al Gore, the programs that he used in his film to predict future weather patterns cannot even accurately predict past weather patterns.
(Now you can ask, "What are Forbes sources?" this is where I shrug my shoulders.)

So if all the above holds true, what's with all the hub-bub?

People need doomsday scenarios. The religious folk used to talk about the imminent second coming of Christ (in fact one of the reasons the Apostle Paul had to write his second letter to Thessalonica was to get them out of the doomsday train of thought), but since we as a culture traded in the supernatural for science, we no longer bought into the idea. Still, people need doomsday scenarios. So science gives us one -- global warming. The cool thing is, if we do the right deeds and make the right choices, we can save the world.

In all this, we get so concerned with the world, we forget about those who inhabit the world. Forget emissions, look what our desire for oil has done to people. Kuwait was invaded over a decade ago for it. Some argue that our present situation in Iraq has its roots in oil.National Geographic recently published an article on the horrible corruption and violence that takes place in Nigeria, and it's all rooted in oil.

So instead of falling for the environmental doomsday, lets talk about the humanitarian one.