So I watch this video that someone posted to Facebook and besides
being fugging hilarious, it made me think. Yes, yes I know! That is
a dangerous thing and I do try and avoid it as much as possible, but
sometimes I can't help it. He was going on and on in a very comedic
way about Climate Change. (I am not going to go into my own views on
Climate Change and Man's place in it. If you don't know it by now,
you haven't been paying attention.) However, the punchline of his
tirade is something that I have been saying all along and should be
everyone's attitude.
There are basically 4 arguments over Climate Change (Note: The
official title used to be global warming, but since recent
calculations show the original estimates for global warming were
inaccurate, the official title has been altered to Climate Change. I
personally feel it is a better title anyways since there is a lot
more to it all then things just getting hotter.)
Argument #1 is that it is all a bunch of hokum, bull shift, nerd
nuggets. The climate isn't changing in any dramatic fashion and
things are all hunky dorry. Argument #2 is “Well okay maybe the
climate is changing and things might be getting worse, but it has
absolutely nothing to do with humans living on the planet. Argument
#3 is “Well okay maybe the climate is changing and humans might
have had a teensy bit to do with it but not a lot.” Argument #4 is
“OH CRAP WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE AND IT IS ALL OUR FAULT!” (Last
one loosely paraphrased.)
Lately the majority of people seem to be leaning towards #3 with
many still in the #1 section. The comedian argued and I agree that
it really doesn't matter what number the truth lies in. Let's assume
for a second that #2,3,4 are completely wrong. Solar flares passing
through the atmosphere of planet Neribu are temporarily making things
a little wonky on the Earth and things will return to what we
jokingly call normal. In the end, it doesn't matter who is right and
who is wrong.
Even if it is all a hoax. Some bunkum scammed up by the evil
Solar/Wind Power Illuminati to make us give up our Hummer12s and ride
bicycles everywhere we go. A plot by Al Gore to become Emperor of
the Moon. (Futurama for the uninitiated, the show with more cameos
than all other shows combined.) Heck it could just be a massive case
of someone misplacing a decimal point. Even if all of the above it
true, it doesn't matter.
Every single hour of every single day we pump out massive amounts of
waste into our world. We dump poisonous chemicals into our streams
and rivers. We release millions of metric tons of pollution into our
atmosphere every year. We clear cut more and more rain forest and
drain more and more of our wetlands every year. (As a note here, the
US total acreage of Wetlands has dropped nearly 52% because of man's
interference.) Every day we heap massive amounts of abuse on the
only world we have to live on and most people expect things to be
okay.
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| That is all because of us, Folks. |
|
Look at the picture and ponder this. Our marine mammals have
dangerously high levels of heavy metals in their bodies from decades
of dumping batteries and film developer into the oceans. Our food
fish (Tuna, Salmon, Haddock) have dangerous levels of Mercury and
other toxins in them. There are massive areas of the oceans which
are literally barren of all life and oxygen because of pesticides,
insecticides and other toxins we wash into our water supplies. There
are literally islands of trash where tons of the crap we dumped into
the oceans collects. We are turning our world into a massive
cesspool and we are going to have to live in it.
Now I have heard all of the arguments, some rational and some
completely around the bend. People argue, “Why should we do
anything when countries like India and China are doing a hundred
times worse?” They say, “Cleaning all of this up and using
cleaner resources is too expensive now. We need to wait till it is
cheaper.” and the arguments go on and on and on and on.
Let's take the two I listed in reverse order. The simple fact is
that it will always be cheaper (Well till we run out of oil, coal and
natural gas which BTW is not that far in the future.) to be dirty
than it is to be clean. Blowing up mountain tops for coal will
always be cheaper than finding an efficient wind turbine. Clean will
never be more cost efficient than dirty. If we wait till it becomes
cost efficient to be cleaner, we will be waiting forever or at least
till we run out of petroleum sources and by then it will be too late.
The first argument always strikes me as exceedingly childish. Its
like the world is a bunch of two year olds and America is screaming,
“But Johnny didn't clean up his room and wipe his butt, so I
shouldn't have to either!” We cannot control what other countries
do. We never have (Though God knows we try) and we never will.
(Well until Barack Obama's Genetically Engineered Army of Elite
Tyrannosaurus Rex take over the world and I for one welcome the
coming of our Lizard Overlords.) Yes, other countries are much worse
culprits than us when it comes to pollution, but that doesn't excuse
our responsibilities. We still need to cut back on Green House Gas
Emmisions. We still need to stop dumping hundreds of thousands of
gallons of toxins into our water systems. We need to clean up our
act IF for no other reason than when the Alpaclypse finally comes, we
can stand proud and yell “Neener Neener Neener!”
What it boils down to is extremely simple. Whether you are a
believer or a denier or somewhere in between, Earth is the only home
we have right now and she is incredibly finite and fragile. If we
still want to have a glorious and beautiful home to leave to future
generations where they can eat the fish and breath the air without
fear, we need to start working on it right now. Every little bit
helps. Recycle your aluminum, plastic and papers. Walk instead of
drive when you can. Compost your veggies and use the results to make
the world a little greener. We only have one planet to live on and
it is high time we started treating her right.
End of Rant
