"music concerts to combat global warming"
It seems the sad, strange Global Warming fad has taken a surreal turn. There are so many easy jokes that could be made about 'cool' celebs or 'hot air', and no doubt many slightly cleverer jokes, and probably even some really insightful ones. Me, I'm too scared to laugh.
I'm not scared of global warming. I don't doubt the raw data collection that says global average temperatures are up. The weather in the midwestern USA has certainly changed a little during my lifetime. I am, though, very sceptical that the burning of fossil fuels is a major cause of the warming, even a little sceptical that it makes more than a trivial contribution. (Warming causes the oceans to release CO2; deforestation and desertification remove non-oceanic CO2 regulators; climate change of this magnitude could be a geological phenomenon mostly unconnected to human activity; other greenhouse gasses may be more significant than CO2; i.e., there are many reasons to believe the situation is complex and to disbelieve the simplistic focus on fossil-fuels.) I'm also very sceptical about a multi-billion dollar climate-prediction industry with an obvious interest in keeping the money flowing.
We are clearly well on our way down the slippery slope of environmental catastrophe -- mass extinction is underway, and topsoil is pretty much gone (in the farming regions of the USA, anyway) while irrigation salinates what's left and depletes aquifers. What proportion of the world's forests ca. 1807 is still standing? 10%? We have already made the world inhospitable for most other species. When our food and water run out we're going to have a hard time, too.
Rising temperatures accelerate the extinction of a few species whose habitats are especially vulnerable. Rising sea level will displace a few people, by which I mean maybe a few million people. Really, temperature change will only serve to slightly exaccerbate what's already a huge problem.
So I'm not particularly afraid of global warming. What scares me is Global Warming, this intimidating flexing of the proverbial muscle of disinformation. Global Warming is the darling of the corporate media, and the corporations never interests in mind other than their own. I hope the GW fad is nothing more sinister than a way to justify raising energy prices and doling out huge portions of corporate welfare to the nuclear-power and biofuel industries, while diverting attention from the real environmental catastrophe. You and I will have to tighten our belts (meaning, pay more for the bare necessities or life -- food, water and energy) while Archer Daniels Midland and Exxon, who have plenty of money of their own, mind you, get some multi-billion-dollar handouts to ease their transition to ethanol-providers.
Distract people from the real problem and any real solutions it might have, while dressing the culprits as saviors and showering them with money. It's really a pretty shrewd scam, why shouldn't Madonna cash in?
I'm not scared of global warming. I don't doubt the raw data collection that says global average temperatures are up. The weather in the midwestern USA has certainly changed a little during my lifetime. I am, though, very sceptical that the burning of fossil fuels is a major cause of the warming, even a little sceptical that it makes more than a trivial contribution. (Warming causes the oceans to release CO2; deforestation and desertification remove non-oceanic CO2 regulators; climate change of this magnitude could be a geological phenomenon mostly unconnected to human activity; other greenhouse gasses may be more significant than CO2; i.e., there are many reasons to believe the situation is complex and to disbelieve the simplistic focus on fossil-fuels.) I'm also very sceptical about a multi-billion dollar climate-prediction industry with an obvious interest in keeping the money flowing.
We are clearly well on our way down the slippery slope of environmental catastrophe -- mass extinction is underway, and topsoil is pretty much gone (in the farming regions of the USA, anyway) while irrigation salinates what's left and depletes aquifers. What proportion of the world's forests ca. 1807 is still standing? 10%? We have already made the world inhospitable for most other species. When our food and water run out we're going to have a hard time, too.
Rising temperatures accelerate the extinction of a few species whose habitats are especially vulnerable. Rising sea level will displace a few people, by which I mean maybe a few million people. Really, temperature change will only serve to slightly exaccerbate what's already a huge problem.
So I'm not particularly afraid of global warming. What scares me is Global Warming, this intimidating flexing of the proverbial muscle of disinformation. Global Warming is the darling of the corporate media, and the corporations never interests in mind other than their own. I hope the GW fad is nothing more sinister than a way to justify raising energy prices and doling out huge portions of corporate welfare to the nuclear-power and biofuel industries, while diverting attention from the real environmental catastrophe. You and I will have to tighten our belts (meaning, pay more for the bare necessities or life -- food, water and energy) while Archer Daniels Midland and Exxon, who have plenty of money of their own, mind you, get some multi-billion-dollar handouts to ease their transition to ethanol-providers.
Distract people from the real problem and any real solutions it might have, while dressing the culprits as saviors and showering them with money. It's really a pretty shrewd scam, why shouldn't Madonna cash in?