global warnings
I went to see An Inconvenient Truth last night. As I did so, I questioned a lot of things. I've been doing a lot of questioning lately. Read more behind the cut.
I know people on various sides of the global warming "issue." Everyone is allowed his or her opinion--at least, in this country, in theory ;) Personally, I believe that the climate is changing. Do I know that people are responsible for the changes? I can't imagine that we have no part in them. Not even getting into the science of the matter, just looking at the world around me everyday -- with our huge global population, and our incredible modifications to nature, it seems unlikely that we would have no impact on the planet.
A few years ago, while driving home from work, emotionally and physically drained as usual, I got stuck at a red light for a while. I looked to the side, hoping that I could just drift away from "all of this," whatever "this" was. I suppose civilization, and people themselves, can be really tiring for me. I looked to the side and saw one of the useless grass-covered patches left in the middle where two lanes merge together. Those places that seem odd when you think about them...little islands of land left in the middle of the asphalt jungle. On that little island, a bunch of common sparrows were hopping about, seemingly oblivious to the traffic. They were picking with their beaks in the sparse grass, apparently finding something to eat. I recall thinking to myself about adaptability of their species. How much had the world changed for them since people had arrived, and our civilizations had "risen," totally annihilating much of the environment the sparrows and other animals had been used to having at their disposal? Sure, other animals have environmental impacts, especially when they are able to overpopulate. (For example, beavers building dams and ruminants grazing the land).
I thought again, not about sparrows, but about these particular sparrows, and how they differed from me. I knew that we had many similar physical traits - nervous systems, digestive systems, circulatory systems, etc. I don't pretend to believe that they are as capable thinkers as I, nor do I assign to them human-like emotion. However, I also don't pretend to know how they do think, or what they do feel. It also occurred to me that while I had the advantage of all the years of education I had enjoyed that introduced me to topics of evolution, human civilization, invention and industry, these birds had none of that. For all they knew, things had always been exactly the way they were at that moment, to them. Could I say they had undergone a hardship due to the fact that they were now hopping about on an island in the asphalt, possibly picking at remnants of cigarettes and sesame-seed buns smeared with ketchup that had been tossed from vehicles directly polluting their air? They had never known any other existence. Their species, so far, has been able to adapt to the changes our species has made.
Back to the movie. As I watched the clips of Al Gore traveling about the globe to preach his message, one of the first things that caught my attention was how many times he was shown in a car or on an airplane. The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) also noticed this hypocrisy and made a rather ridiculous ad about it. The two other ads on their site contest the danger of global warming with the slogan: "CO2: They call it pollution. We call it life." The "institute" points out that humans breathe out CO2 and plants breathe it in. Ok, anyone not sleeping in bio class probably remembers this. However, as Gore's video points out, and few seem to dispute, the CO2 levels on our planet have been rising astronomically. Gore argues that this increase is far outside the natural variability often proferred as an explanation.
Critics of the film point out that Gore does not do a good job of proving that humans are causing the CO2 rise. This is true. Author Michael Crichton is known for his opposing view. Climate scientists at http://www.realclimate.org point out errors in both Crichton's and Gore's presentations, among others. They also have an informative FAQ. Another source I found interesting was this: http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=3514&IssueNum=23, an article about the Skeptics' Conference held recently at CalTech.
Do I think global warming is real? Yes. Do I think we are causing it? Maybe not all of it, but I believe we are having an appreciable effect. Was Gore's movie self-promoting and hypocritical? Yes, in quite a few ways. Does that mean we don't have to do anything about the environment? No, certainly not. Is it too late? Theoretically, they say it's not. My opinion? Maybe, because eliciting the types of changes needed to curb the trends in place will be difficult here, and perhaps even more difficult in the developing world, where there may be even fewer economic incentives to do the right thing, and less awareness. Basically, people are concerned about convenience ("But we need those fuels!" in the words of CEI) and putting food on the table today, not 10 years from now.
I don't know the answers, but I am glad people are at least talking about the problem. Maybe a small number of people making changes won't matter. Maybe it won't be enough. But will it hurt to try? What is the alternative?
I know people on various sides of the global warming "issue." Everyone is allowed his or her opinion--at least, in this country, in theory ;) Personally, I believe that the climate is changing. Do I know that people are responsible for the changes? I can't imagine that we have no part in them. Not even getting into the science of the matter, just looking at the world around me everyday -- with our huge global population, and our incredible modifications to nature, it seems unlikely that we would have no impact on the planet.
A few years ago, while driving home from work, emotionally and physically drained as usual, I got stuck at a red light for a while. I looked to the side, hoping that I could just drift away from "all of this," whatever "this" was. I suppose civilization, and people themselves, can be really tiring for me. I looked to the side and saw one of the useless grass-covered patches left in the middle where two lanes merge together. Those places that seem odd when you think about them...little islands of land left in the middle of the asphalt jungle. On that little island, a bunch of common sparrows were hopping about, seemingly oblivious to the traffic. They were picking with their beaks in the sparse grass, apparently finding something to eat. I recall thinking to myself about adaptability of their species. How much had the world changed for them since people had arrived, and our civilizations had "risen," totally annihilating much of the environment the sparrows and other animals had been used to having at their disposal? Sure, other animals have environmental impacts, especially when they are able to overpopulate. (For example, beavers building dams and ruminants grazing the land).
I thought again, not about sparrows, but about these particular sparrows, and how they differed from me. I knew that we had many similar physical traits - nervous systems, digestive systems, circulatory systems, etc. I don't pretend to believe that they are as capable thinkers as I, nor do I assign to them human-like emotion. However, I also don't pretend to know how they do think, or what they do feel. It also occurred to me that while I had the advantage of all the years of education I had enjoyed that introduced me to topics of evolution, human civilization, invention and industry, these birds had none of that. For all they knew, things had always been exactly the way they were at that moment, to them. Could I say they had undergone a hardship due to the fact that they were now hopping about on an island in the asphalt, possibly picking at remnants of cigarettes and sesame-seed buns smeared with ketchup that had been tossed from vehicles directly polluting their air? They had never known any other existence. Their species, so far, has been able to adapt to the changes our species has made.
Back to the movie. As I watched the clips of Al Gore traveling about the globe to preach his message, one of the first things that caught my attention was how many times he was shown in a car or on an airplane. The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) also noticed this hypocrisy and made a rather ridiculous ad about it. The two other ads on their site contest the danger of global warming with the slogan: "CO2: They call it pollution. We call it life." The "institute" points out that humans breathe out CO2 and plants breathe it in. Ok, anyone not sleeping in bio class probably remembers this. However, as Gore's video points out, and few seem to dispute, the CO2 levels on our planet have been rising astronomically. Gore argues that this increase is far outside the natural variability often proferred as an explanation.
Critics of the film point out that Gore does not do a good job of proving that humans are causing the CO2 rise. This is true. Author Michael Crichton is known for his opposing view. Climate scientists at http://www.realclimate.org point out errors in both Crichton's and Gore's presentations, among others. They also have an informative FAQ. Another source I found interesting was this: http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=3514&IssueNum=23, an article about the Skeptics' Conference held recently at CalTech.
Do I think global warming is real? Yes. Do I think we are causing it? Maybe not all of it, but I believe we are having an appreciable effect. Was Gore's movie self-promoting and hypocritical? Yes, in quite a few ways. Does that mean we don't have to do anything about the environment? No, certainly not. Is it too late? Theoretically, they say it's not. My opinion? Maybe, because eliciting the types of changes needed to curb the trends in place will be difficult here, and perhaps even more difficult in the developing world, where there may be even fewer economic incentives to do the right thing, and less awareness. Basically, people are concerned about convenience ("But we need those fuels!" in the words of CEI) and putting food on the table today, not 10 years from now.
I don't know the answers, but I am glad people are at least talking about the problem. Maybe a small number of people making changes won't matter. Maybe it won't be enough. But will it hurt to try? What is the alternative?