Freddy's Fantastic Foray

My two cents...

I'm usually the type to try and avoid controversial issues, as they often revolve around things like personal choice, personal philosophy, faith, and so on.  But, on the issue of  "global warming" (or, put more accurately, what the issue has become), I just can't remain silent any longer.  Especially after RFK Jr.'s rant at the Live Earth concert last weekend, which has left me floored (to make an understatement).

Now, I'm definately no member of the "anti-global warming" political crowd, but, especially after Live Earth,  it's obvious to me that the "pro" crowd has become just as political and agenda-driven.  And, as history has shown, where politics meets anything creative or reason-driven (like the arts, history, science, etc.) the latter invariably suffers.  Sometimes immeasurably so, as during the infamous "Dark Ages".

Sure, corporations must take their share of the blame, be held to account, and so forth, but they can also be part of the solution.  Unless your primary agenda is to see capitalism as the problem, and thus do away with corporations, of course.  Unless you are not so much an environmentalist as a socialist, and are seizing a true, honest, and serious environmental concern and using it to play political football.  I wish that wasn't happening, but it is.  And on both sides of the political aisle, I'm afraid.  And humanity will suffer.

I'm sorry, Robert, but if every home installed compact flourescent light bulbs (CFL's), our nation's power grid would go from ailing to healthy in a matter of weeks - or maybe even mere days. No more grayouts or rolling blackouts, and just maybe, just maybe, the power plants would have to burn less coal.  What a concept...

I know this because I've installed CFL's throughout our home here.  (Not just one or two; that wouldn't have the same impact). And I'm truly amazed at how much our power usage has tumbled - along with our electric bill!

But, of course, something like that doesn't neatly "fit" political agendas.  And it's sad, very sad.  And it could be truly tragic.

Unfortunately, the dwindling of true science in the area of global warming only fuels the agenda-driven minions; false information, "bad" science (not of global warming itself, but the stuff that cries the earth will more-or-less implode in 10, 15, or 20 years, or that rants that every major storm, tornado, hurricane, heat wave, et al, are all caused by global warming), and constant and growing resistance to anything that could truly make a difference, are all rampant. 

As with CFL's, we all can make a difference.  Governments can fuel (pun very much intended) serious research into alternative fuels and power sources - but, then, these things don't fit political agendas, either, so resistance to them is assured, and, again, from both sides of the "debate". Probably to the point that none of it will ever happen.  Unless we can somehow divorce the environment from politics.

I'm sorry, Robert, but you are wrong. It is about CFL's and hydrogen-fueled cars. Unless of course global warming and the environment are not your primary concern.  Unless you place sole blame on capitalism and corporations, and not where it belongs - on all of us, individuals and corporations alike. You're as bad as Limbaugh, only from the other side.

God help us all...