Climate Changing Minds

The ongoing debate of climate change is a tough one to tackle. I simply don’t have the data to back up a lot of my assumptions, and apparently, most scientists are in the same boat.

According to some reports the global temperature actually dropped in 2007, despite lobbyists continuing to affirm the effect of “Global Warming”. First off, the term “Global Warming” seems silly to me. If the temperature is fluctuating, a more accurate term is “Climate change”. Sorry, it just gets to me these days when I hear anyone say “Global Warming”.

Then there is this documentary called “The Great Global Warming Swindle”. Now, I haven’t seen “An Inconvenient Truth”. Al Gore is not a scientist, thus I wasn’t as compelled to flock to the cinemas for that one. I promise I’ll watch it though, I swear. I have to now! (This doesn’t mean I haven’t done my own research) Anyways, the former doc in question argues that the Green Movement is largely political maneuvering and economically-based, which makes sense somewhat as there are industries built straight from this movement and are generating revenue. Politicians are using the movement to their advantage and tapping into the sympathies of voters when advocating the issue also. But there must be some shred of truth to get that many people behind a cause, because people don’t just blindly believe what others in power tell them do they? Oh wait, that’s a topic for another blog I think. The documentary also cites the influence of the Sun on Global Temperature, primarily the effect of Cosmic Rays and Sunspots. The Rays emit from the sunspots and hit our planet which warms the oceans, which in turn emit Carbon Dioxide which warms the atmosphere which warms the oceans which emits CO2 again, etc etc. They also assert that a mere fraction of CO2 emissions are caused by humans.

Now this is debatable, and nicely presented here by a fellow named Joseph Romm.

This also brings up the issue we’re facing now with our economic crisis. The economy is largely influenced by the production, distribution, and consumption of fossil fuels. Which is one of the leading human-caused carbon emitter industries. This industry not only drives economy, it drives war and power. Think of a world that did not need to stake a claim in the ownership of land for it’s natural fossil fuel resources. What would be left to fight over? Religion? I’ll pass on that.

If the economy is on the verge of collapse, it means the way it is practiced is flawed. Maybe our reliance on fossil fuels has past it’s expiration date? Maybe the world doesn’t really need fossil fuels to function? Sure we know that they can be useful, but there are proven alternative methods to achieve the same purposes. Maybe, if we reduce our reliance on these fuel sources that we can recover our economy and recover our environment all in one shot! Just a thought. (Although, derivatives and hedge funds aren’t necessarily environmental factors.)

Personally, in regards to climate change, I’m not so sure about any of this. It could be quite an egotistical ideal to assume humans have that much influence on our environment and not vice versa (Although we can all easily create an artificial environment sufficient to live within, maybe we’ve evolved to that point?). Seems to me though, that the environment is forcing us to do something. So who’s really in control here?

On the contrary, who’s to say we should not take care of our natural habitat, and honor and worship her for giving us all life. We owe it to the planet to take care of her, for without her none of us would have this existence and everything it comes with. I love this place as much as anyone and if we can do something to make things better, then we should. But what should we do? What will make the best, most positive impact? I’d really like to know.

Just a thought,

Jon

~ by Jon's infinitybasement on October 8, 2008.