Wednesday, March 11, 2009

"Seeking Solace in the Abyss"





For those interested, my new "Loving the Alien" column has been posted.
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2 comments:

purrlgurrl said...

Global warming is a phenomenon that has statistics supporting it and statistics that don’t. When it became an anti-Bush political sacred cow, it started being argued for at a hysterical pitch that shouted down any analysis tending to cast doubt on its existence and progression. Somewhat like abortion, it’s a polarizing issue. Don’t ever raise a finger to a pontificating doomsayer and say, “Yes, but . . .”

Global warming and Green are now major marketing concepts. This fact is watering a seed of skepticism inside me that I suspect will blossom into healthy doubt. Whenever there’s a buck being made from collective fear, that fear will be fed and exaggerated.

This old earth has seen varying climates and atmospheres in the past, before Homo sapiens appeared on the scene. Science can’t explain those past changes with any certainty. So why do we think it’s doing a better job explaining what’s happening now? We still can’t get a reliable forecast about what the weather’s going to be like next weekend.

Global warming is like the promise of Hell - there’s no absolute proof until we get there. But, it can’t hurt to live a good and ethical life in the meantime so we can avoid it if it exists. So just in case all that gloom and doom might be just over the horizon, I say do everything humanly possible now to be respectful and protective of our home planet. If that means reassessing our love affair with technology for technology’s sake, so be it. It can’t hurt.

9:26 PM
Mac said...

Global warming is a phenomenon that has statistics supporting it and statistics that don't.

But the alarming majority of those statistics do. And many of the others come from oil industry shills. Hmmm . . .

This old earth has seen varying climates and atmospheres in the past, before Homo sapiens appeared on the scene. Science can't explain those past changes with any certainty.

I would argue that it's a matter of defining "certainty."

I think you're absolutely right that we don't know for sure what's in store -- which was partly why I wrote the essay. But at this point all the signs indicate a steadily brewing nightmare scenario that calls for immediate action; the only real question at this late stage is what form that action will take.

12:44 AM

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