My work with computers tends to isolate my thinking sometimes so that everything has an abstract quality. It is as if everything was a computer game and I was only an "avatar" wandering around in an artificial terrain, where nothing really gets hurt if I swing my Vorpal Blade around.
I know, however, that the world is very real and unforgiving. In the US we can come up with all kinds of reasons to pussyfoot around the issues of greenhouse gases and our piggish habits of consumption -- as though the levels of the stock market took precedence over the level of atmospheric toxins and global temperatures.
To someone living in Africa, where "climate change meetings" took place during the last couple weeks, it is a much different problem -- one that isn't measured so easily with colored graphs and marketing displays.
Sometimes the skeptics haul out statistics, such as "86% of all hogwash is malarkey", or point out faulty statements with "all computer models fail X years out" or "no scientific prediction of weather is possible because of random deviations." The stupider ones don't try to argue the science, so much as pooh-pooh science itself and appeal to an intervention by "The Good Lord" who, lovingly looking after his flock, would never allow the Earth to succumb to sewage, coal and petroleum pollution.
I've heard all that crap, the same crap as the tobacco industry used whenever cancer or lung disease was linked to their addicting products. "The science isn't in" or some such drivel. Meanwhile, thousands of people die every year directly or indirectly from tobacco. The numbers of deaths could be even greater for environmental damage, and that doesn't even consider the extinction of other species.
I feel like I am living amongst cave men who can't imagine a future where rocks and clubs will give way to nuclear weapons. They can't imagine a world of corporate dictatorships and fast food and disposable diapers. Cave men could never imagine what effects methane and carbon dioxide might have on their planet. As long as there were females to club over the head and animals to sacrifice to the Gods, who cared?
Even the Africans, the least respected amongst the Earth's inhabitants, know what is going on. So do the pollution industry executives. They can lie to everyone else, but they know how guilty they really are.
I know, however, that the world is very real and unforgiving. In the US we can come up with all kinds of reasons to pussyfoot around the issues of greenhouse gases and our piggish habits of consumption -- as though the levels of the stock market took precedence over the level of atmospheric toxins and global temperatures.
To someone living in Africa, where "climate change meetings" took place during the last couple weeks, it is a much different problem -- one that isn't measured so easily with colored graphs and marketing displays.
Some climate change issues remain unresolved after two weeks of talks. "The question is, whose problems are we addressing?" she asked rhetorically.I often read the words of climate "skeptics", who deride everyone as "enviro-moonbats" or engage in some other school-yard name-calling against those who consider the climate a real and serious problem. I am too old to care if people call me names... I am not going to change my beliefs under such childish conditions. But I think some of the skeptics need to arise from their armchairs and looked at what this SUV riddled traffic jam called a "life-style" actually costs.
"Fine, we can have Western countries coming, but some came here with their own agenda, to protect themselves and their economies; others came here as climate tourists who wanted to see Africa, take snaps of the wildlife, the poor, dying African children and women." -- Sharon Looremetta, a Maasai woman.
Sometimes the skeptics haul out statistics, such as "86% of all hogwash is malarkey", or point out faulty statements with "all computer models fail X years out" or "no scientific prediction of weather is possible because of random deviations." The stupider ones don't try to argue the science, so much as pooh-pooh science itself and appeal to an intervention by "The Good Lord" who, lovingly looking after his flock, would never allow the Earth to succumb to sewage, coal and petroleum pollution.
I've heard all that crap, the same crap as the tobacco industry used whenever cancer or lung disease was linked to their addicting products. "The science isn't in" or some such drivel. Meanwhile, thousands of people die every year directly or indirectly from tobacco. The numbers of deaths could be even greater for environmental damage, and that doesn't even consider the extinction of other species.
I feel like I am living amongst cave men who can't imagine a future where rocks and clubs will give way to nuclear weapons. They can't imagine a world of corporate dictatorships and fast food and disposable diapers. Cave men could never imagine what effects methane and carbon dioxide might have on their planet. As long as there were females to club over the head and animals to sacrifice to the Gods, who cared?
Even the Africans, the least respected amongst the Earth's inhabitants, know what is going on. So do the pollution industry executives. They can lie to everyone else, but they know how guilty they really are.
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