Our world is warming up. Most likely because of human activity. And yet there exists a rather large segment of our population that gets foaming at the mouth mad when this is brought up. We can’t seem to have a conversation because we get stuck on one point: man-made global warming. Which to me seems like a distraction from the real discussion.
Let’s try and look at this from a couple of angles. First off, let’s say that our atmosphere is warming up, but that it is not because of anything humans are doing. OK, we are not at fault. But we still have an issue. Our world is still getting warmer, and this creates a very real problem for us. At some point it gets too hot and we are pretty much screwed. So we really should be talking about what to do about this. We have a lot of mouths to feed, and if we don’t come up with some ideas fast, a lot of people (possibly all of us) are going to die a horrible death.
Second angle. Our world is warming up and it’s because of our activities. Which means we, at least in theory, have the power to change this. I say in theory because we would have to exercise some self control in order to accomplish this. Which we humans are not known for. If we don’t a lot of people (possibly all of us) are going to die a horrible death.
If our world is not in fact warming up, then there is no issue and proceed as normal. Right? Well no. You would have to be pretty willfully blind to not notice the pollution that surrounds us. Our air is filthy, our rivers and lakes are filthy, and our oceans are strewn with trash. Species are dying off at an alarming rate. Regardless of whether or not our atmosphere is warming up, we still have what I’ll refer to as a trash issue. Sure, we may not die from the effects of a warming planet, but we could still poison ourselves. Which could lead to a lot of people (possibly all of us) dying a horrible death.
Which leads me to the point of this post. Regardless of whether or not you ‘believe’ in global warming, you have to be pretty fucking willfully ignorant and blind to not notice how we are trashing our environment. And it just so happens that the solutions to our trash issue are the same as the ones for stopping man-made global warming. So if we are causing the atmosphere to warm up, then we can change our ways and stop this. Which would also lead to a reduction in the trashing of our world. And if we are not causing the warming, we still benefit from a cleaner world.
Unfortunately, if the world we live in is in fact warming up due to some natural cycle, then we need to figure out how to survive this. But since we seem unable to have any real conversation on this, if it is happening we are pretty much fucked. Now, I know the more cynical of you out there are thinking, “Well, if we’re fucked anyways, let’s just party till the end!” And that is an option I suppose, if you don’t give two shits about the survival of our species. Which is a common attitude, given the amount of support that exists for endless wars. Many of us seem to have no problem with killing one another. Getting rid of all of us is the next logical step.
So we as a species are left with a couple of choices. Do we act now to clean up our world and benefit from the effort even if man-made global warming does not exist? Or do we keep on going down this path to a poisoned world and see what wipes us out first, ourselves or nature?
Since I too am a cynical bastard, I am guessing that we choose the second option. Because nothing is more human than fucking up a perfectly good thing.
just another vet 