Global Warming: we need to stay open minded

Well, when it comes to global warming, who are we really supposed to believe? Is the world going to end in five years, or should we regulate industries to the point we destroy the economy? Personally, I think we should meet somewhere in the middle.

Conservatives and liberals alike would cringe at what I just wrote. Liberals believe we should do whatever it takes to stop global warming, even if that means destroying the greatest economy that ever existed on this earth. Conservatives, on the other hand, think the global warming thing is nothing more than a hoax.

Hmm. Who is right? What if the conservatives are right? What if global warming is a hoax, and whomever the next president is decides to support new regulations on businesses and industries, and we end up in a major depression as a result? What if global warming is real, and we do not do anything about it, and the world really does boil over in ten years?

I think we should regulate somewhere right in the middle. Liberals and conservatives and independent minded members of the House and Senate (both republican and democrats) should get together and make some kind of compromise where we regulate some, but not enough to destroy the economy. What do we have to lose?

I think that John McCain states it well when he says the following, even though Conservatives cringe:

My friends, I believe global climate change is real, and I think it's a major issue worldwide and in this country. I have been at odds with the Bush administration on this issue for a long time. Suppose that there's no such thing as climate change and we adopt clean technologies. We go to nuclear power. We devolop automobiles that go 200 miles before you have to plug them in. We go to hybrids. We use ethonol. There's a broad array of steps we can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Suppose we do these things and we're wrong about global warming. Then all we've done is given our children a cleaner world. But suppose we are right -- that climate change is an urgent issue -- and we do nothing. I think the consequences are obvious and would be devastating.I think that is a very intelligent statement on the issue of global warming. Scientists have only been measuring the temperature of the earth for 100 or so years, and we really have no idea what will happen in the future. There are theories, but a theory is simply a theory.

According to dictionary.com, a theory is as follows: "a proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural, in contrast to well-established propositions that are regarded as reporting matters of actual fact."

If ignoring the global warming theory would ultimately result in creating an earth that our children would suffer in, or not be able to live in at all (the earth will boil over perhaps), then we should definetely do something about it. If we spend all our efforts in creating regulations on global warming and the economy tanks, and there is no such thing as global warming, then our politicians would have to admit to making a grave mistake.

So, where would we go so wrong as to compromise on this issue? What's so bad about a compromise?

According to an excelent article regarding global warming on news.bbc.co, the temperature of the earth has not increased since 1998. Does that mean that the theory of global warming is false? No it does not. However, there still is that chance.

Americans need, in my humble opinion, to stay open minded on this issue. People, expecially our politicians, must not be partison on this issue.