How anyone can still say they are not is beyond me.
In the seventies the conservative position was that global warming was a myth; in the nineties they started to grudgingly agree that it was a possibility, but refused to acknowledge that the problem was caused by human activities; now, near the end of 2010, only the least evolved of conservatives will deny that global warming is real and at least partly caused by human co2 emissions. Unfortunately, it appears that now it is too late. By the time the world can react to this crisis, the point of no return will likely be past and it will be anybody's guess whether our race survives.
Even if we do survive, life will never be the same. The human condition is about to change in a way we won't fully understand for a long time to come.
On the subject of global warming, there is something no one has been talking about which I feel is very important to point out:
When sunlight hits the Earth, some of it is reflected back out into space by the atmosphere, and some of it is reflected by those parts of the earth which are covered with ice. As the ice which covers the North Sea retreats further and further, less light and heat is reflected out into space and more and more is absorbed by the dense waters of the ocean. An interesting property of matter is that the denser it is, the better it stores energy (heat). Because water is denser than land, it stores the heat from the Sun very efficiently--if you think it was hot in your hometown last summer, just imagine what it is going to be like after the arctic zones have thawed out! There is a very real possibility that things could get so hot that our oceans and atmosphere could start evaporating away into space. Scientists knew about this when I was a kid back in the nineteen seventies--people talked about it all the time, but no one thought it would happen so fast! "Don't worry" they said when I asked the grownups, "It will be hundreds or thousands of years from now."
Now, there is a very real possibility that we will see our poles thaw out within the next fifteen to twenty-five years. I have heard many predictions by the "experts," but in my opinion, it could already be too late to do anything about it. As the ice caps melt and the oceans rise; volcanoes become more active and earthquakes more frequent; floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes grow in number and size; usable land will become harder and harder to find. As food and water become more and more scarce, the wealthier classes will begin to fortify their homes, installing home-defense systems and purchasing powerful weapons. Overpopulated coastal urban areas will begin to see bands of roving bandits. Young men without jobs or hope, desperate to survive at whatever cost--if you think you have a problem with crime in your hometown now, just wait a few years! If things continue the way they have been, things are going to get a lot worse.
People talk almost casually about losing the ice around the poles. I actually heard some jerk in the bar the other day saying, "What do I care if the Polar Bears die?" I guess this is the kind of ignorance which has led to the situation we are in....people need to understand that all life on this planet is interconnected--when we lose a species off this planet, we lose part of what made us human. We will never know how many resources we have lost through our destruction of thousands of species of plants and animals, or how much of our own spirit we have destroyed...
Some say it won't do any good to speak of doom and gloom--that I am only contributing to our problems with such negative talk, but I will continue to spread the word! Please, share this article with as many people as you can and do what you can to make people wake up to this extremely urgent message!
I could be paddling a rowboat down Market Street in San Francisco after the poles have melted, and there will still be conservative fanatics who deny that humans are responsible for Global Warming or that it is even real.
1. They believe it, but don't care: These people are so attached to the wealth created by their surreptitious business holdings that they are incapable of concern for their less fortunate peers, other species, or future generations of humans. This would be very disturbing, because it would mean that a huge portion of our population is actually evil.
2. They are simply to afraid to face the truth: Like ostriches who hide their heads in the sand when there is danger present, their fear doesn't allow them to admit their impending doom.
3. They are racked with guilt: Perhaps they just cannot face the guilt associated with their participation in the destruction of thousands of species of plants and animals; the possible extermination of the human race (or at least our civilization); and the destruction of an ecosystem which is the legacy of every person alive as well as those not yet born.
4. They are just ignorant: This is not very likely, but maybe they simply lack the intellect required to process the information available and come to the obvious conclusion that most intelligent people came to, back in the early seventies.
Such foolishness reminds me of the catholic church's pathetic attempts at stifling any theories that threatened their geocentric model of the universe. Whatever the reason for this self induced ignorance, we must try to educate them of the truth however difficult that may seem. The next time you hear some uneducated hick exclaim, "Global Warming? What global warming? This was the coldest winter I can remember, so how can the planet be warming up?" or, "These are just natural fluctuations in the Earth's climate." Please speak up and explain to them that only religious fanatics who cling to the notion of creationism and a flat Earth still doubt the unfortunate reality of global warming.
I liken our current situation to that faced by the inhabitants of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) before western explorers arrived to find them eating each other just to stay alive. The island was rich in resources, but its superstitious inhabitants squandered those resources trying to outdo each other by carving and erecting enormous stone monoliths which were meant to bring luck to their individual clans. Had they used those resources to build ships instead of statues, their culture may have survived and even flourished. Earth is also a remote island with finite resources. Our skyscrapers are our monoliths, our nations are our clans. If we don't stop our petty clan squabbles and get busy building space ships and space colonies, we may lose the opportunity altogether. Humanity may revert to an agrarian society only to be wiped out eventually when the Sun or a nearby star goes supernova; we are struck by an asteroid; or some other global catastrophe wipes us out. We cannot continue to allow the greedy, ignorant, and/or incompetent to exploit and squander the Earth's resources, which are the legacy of all life on Earth.
