Okay, so I've tried to avoid getting political on this website...but I think just in case someone out there decides to read my blog, and actually gleans something from it, I should start taking stands on some very important issues.
Number one for me right now, and should be for most, is the health of our planet. Fossil fuels have long been a concern for scientists. They have proven to raise the average temperatures of our planet, on top of create higher temperatures in the ocean waters, which have increased the severity of the weather patterns that end up hitting land. Wake up people, the number one reason this is happening is because of the fuel we put in our cars every day, the way we create electricity in our homes, how we heat our homes in the winter, and many other reasons.
I watched a special on HBO a few weeks back, and became more alarmed about a topic I already was concerned about. In a few decades, this planet could start to become an intolerable place to live. With each passing year, our polar ice caps are melting, causing extinction of animals and changes in the atmosphere. Changes that some of you may already have noticed, or been directly affected by. The scientists on this special indicated that pollen has doubled in the last two decades, and will continue to do so the more humidity that comes as a result of the warming of our planet. I don't know about you people, but I am already miserable come springtime, without making it worse. On top of that, the increasing temperatures provide prime conditions for disease carrying insects to live in, meaning more mosquitoes and other types of bugs that will proliferate and infect the population. Diseases will become more commonplace, and affect more of the population. There will be more heat waves, and more deaths related to those heat waves. There will be more severe weather, more flooding, more hot days, more destruction of homes and buildings. The hotter temperatures mean less snow in the mountains, and the farmers who rely on that snow to melt and water their crops will face loss of crops and income. There are a lot of other effects that I don't honestly remember, but they were bad enough to make me seriously consider whether it would be wise for me to bring a child into this world to face the problems that the people who came before her caused, and she is innocent in causing.
Just the other day, an article was in the News Journal in Delaware, an article about an interview with Chad Tolman who warns that if we don't start weaning ourselves off of fossil fuels in the next 10 to 20 years, we may not be able to live with the effects. He notes that "There are proven technologies that would reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and stablilize the planet...The question is, can we find the political will to make such change." I don't think that most people realize the severity of facing this issue right now. Former Vice President Gore just released a movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," on this same issue. I think every person should see this movie. I've heard that President Bush refuses to watch it. That should tell you what he thinks about the world he'll leave his daughters, and their children. I'd be ashamed to call him Dad. Of course the truth is, the oil companies are probably putting a lot of money in his back pocket to keep him from really saying what the truth is. Granted, he's started experiments on the use of a fuel created by corn and basically stuff that would just be put in the trash...but can't we up the importance on this and try to get it to the whole country and the world as quickly as possible?
On this HBO special I watched, they talked about solar energy and wind energy, and water energy...resources that basically cost nothing once they are changed into usable energy to run our planet. One scientist stated that several solar panels, placed within 100 square miles of each other out in the middle of the desert could run the entire nation's electricity. THE ENTIRE NATION! Now that's saying something. And it really wouldn't cost a dime. What saddens me is that this country is so profit-oriented, that no one wants to hear about or do anything that doesn't make their bank account fatter or somehow profit them. Let me pose this question to those people - How much is that money worth when you're dead and gone, caused by decisions you made to not save this planet for you and your descendants? Because if there is a heaven, God isn't going to save that money for you to spend there. And if you are going to hell, the devil would take it all anyway.
Please people, recycle and save as much energy as possible. Don't leave the lights on when you aren't using them. Don't run your air conditioning or heat more than necessary. Don't buy gas guzzling vehicles just because they look "cool" or you think they raise your status. Please start lobbying your local representatives to support alternative sources of energy. Whether you know it or not, they've had the technology for years to use it. Make them start. We don't have long to save this planet from becoming intolerable. Because even if we wean ourselves from fossil fuels within the next 20 years, we'll still be experiencing the effects of what we've already caused for years to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment