Tuesday, March 11, 2008

We need to be environmentally responsible

This blogger does not have a problem with people wanting to be environmentally responsible. In fact, I think it's a great idea. I would like for there to be a clean and safe earth for my children to enjoy, and their children and so forth.

I think we should constantly be looking for different types of fuel so we can stop using fossil fuels we rape from the planet. Not only that, but there is enough evidence to support the claim that we are polluting our planet with some of the things that we do.

The day we drive electric cars that use no fuel (and are hover crafts that drive themselves) is a day we should long for. I would like to make sure that enough of our Forrest's are preserved for my children to know what it's like to walk through the woods, instead of seeing buildings everywhere they look, and hearing roaring highways.

I think we need to preserve rain forests. I think we need to plant three trees for every one we chop down, which is something we have been doing by the way.

I think we do need some regulations on industries to make sure our air quality continues to improve, and to encourage businesses to invest in the latest technologies to purify the air instead of the opposite.

However, I don't think we should go overboard. I don't think we should have so many regulations that we force businesses to lay off workers, or to go out of business all together.

I think there is too much that we do not know about the earth to simply say that what we are doing is not hurting it. On the other hand, there is not enough evidence to support the claim that we are destroying it.

From 1945 to 1970 there was a period of global cooling. It got so bad that at one point scientists actually proposed melting the polar caps to warm the planet. They wanted to do this because they feared that global cooling would destroy the planet.

Of course then came an extended period of global warming from 1970 to, well, January 2007. During this time temperatures rose about a degree. The concern of many scientists was that man was causing this temperature increase.

I don't doubt that we did effect it, however, I believe there are powers of nature far more powerful than just the greenhouse effect that effect global temperatures. There may be things our scientists aren't even aware of yet. Of course scientists contend that that the recent global cooling in no way disproves the greenhouse effect.

Polling of scientists say that about 50% believe in the global warming theory, the one that states that man is causing global warming and this will eventually destroy the planet, and 50% believe in the theory in the cyclical pattern of global temperatures, where temperatures increase for several years before they start to decrease for several years. The cycle continues.

Likewise, and I was surpised by this poll considering the elite media had me believing that this number was much higher, polling of Americans found that about 50% believe in global warming, and 50% do not.

When I read articles about the earths temperature in my local paper (and most of these articles are by the Associated Press), I get frustrated sometimes because the reporters write about global warming as though it were a fact. In essence, I like to refer to this as the theory of global warming.

Okay, so global warming is a fact, but global warming the way they are referring to it, that the planet is warming and will never cool down, is a theory and only a theory. In reporting, journalists should not say "global warming" they should say "the theory of global warming."

I think Al Gore is a good man. I think he means well. I think the Kyoto proposals are a good idea. However, I think it's ridiculous to blame America and modern technology for all the environmental problems that we face ( I will discuss this further in tomorrows post).

Personally, I think it's good to be somewhat scared. Fear causes respect. Respect causes people to appreciate what they have and to take care of it.

Sometimes, however, we go overboard. Sometimes I think some people are too partisan. Al Gore wants to create too many regulations, and Rush Limbaugh wants too few. In all reality, I think we ought to meat somewhere in the middle on this, until we learn more about the environment.

I say this, in all reality, because we have only been studying this planet for a short period of time, and it's been around millions of years. There is a lot we have yet to learn.

In the meantime, we need to be environmentally responsible.

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