Global Warming, What I Can Do

<>This morning I read that scientists had drilled a core into Antarctic ice twice as deep as any before. The analysis of air trapped in the ice reveals that the amount of carbon dioxide in our air is at the highest level it’s been in about 600,000 years. With tropical storm Delta churning about in the mid-Atlantic, it’s rather hard even for a hard-core Bushite to deny that the Earth is heating up.

Of course, if you’re a dispensationalist and are anxious to completely destroy the planet so God will come and save the righteous, you’re not really concerned. It’s all good, right? Since I‘m not anticipating the Rapture and I have no desire to live in a world where skiing in Colorado is an impossibility, I firmly believe we should be taking steps to check global warming. Unfortunately, with his ties to Big Oil, the Chief Shrub What In Charge and Dick the Torturer Cheney don’t believe in such nonsense. Or, with his gentleman’s C grasp of physics, the Shrub believes that all we have to do is build more oil-powered air conditioners to cool the planet. Now even children are smarter on thermodynamics than that, evidencing their concern about what we’re doing to their planet by protesting. Reiterating: It’s their planet, we’re just borrowing it.

Given our government’s suspension of disbelief on global warming, I believe it’s very important to take what steps we can to reduce our use of energy and thereby our production of greenhouse gas. I don’t have the financial wherewithal to go out and buy a Prius, GM’s love of the gas-guzzler and their failure to produce a working hybrid vehicle be damned, but I can drive less, combine trips and keep to the speed limit, notwithstanding the gas guzzling Suburban 4x4 in my rear-view mirror flashing its lights and sounding its 90+ decibel horn. I can replace all the lights in my house with compact fluorescents, eliminating the use of three conventional light bulbs and seventy-five percent of the energy they would use. I can get a programmable thermostat and let the temperature of my house drift up or down during the day, depending on the season. I can insulate, weatherstrip, replace the leaky kitty door, any number of measures to save energy, money and the planet while driving Excel Energy absolutely bonkers.

Efficient transportation, low energy demand facilities and micro-generation of energy are keys to a sustainable future in which we can eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. Our Government, shortsighted and ignorant, believe the future looks like the past, more wells, more (dirtier) power plants, more coal and oil use. Most educated people believe the future is one of efficient houses, industry and transportation and micro-generation of electrical energy. The Shrub and his Fundamentalist Republican Christian brethren believe the Rapture is coming to save him. God, please make it soon so the rest of us can get about the business of cleaning up after them.