There is a trend today in modern science that is very troubling. Some scientists have become activists for causes that sustain their generation of research dollars. Some have made their cause a new religion. Both of these are the case with the global warming. There was also a time that researchers tried to be unbiased and neutral. Not so today, the global warming promoters have become married to a political agenda and a political celebrity. What ever happened to science for the common good?
The facts are that the climate of our planet has gone through and is going through cycles of change continuously. Whether you look at geological data, weather logs, biblical accounts or archeology, the result is the same. Our climate patterns change from time to time in a sort of cyclical manner. Remember the ice age, the wholly mammoth, the glaciers that we now know are covering land masses? They have all been shown to have not existed from the formation of the earth. If man-made contaminants, high levels of green house gases and the combustion engine is the major cause of the current warming, then what man-made cause precipitated the melting in the last ice age?
The whole global warming movement is a political movement with a dogmatic fervor. The facts are as sketchy as the fact for evolution. They are both theories that the 'microwave' scientists are too impatient to do the real work to support their claims. It is much easier to follow a self directed political reject, defame the detractors that want real research and make dollars for fuzzy research their platform.
The Keyoto Protocol is not the answer because it is ineffective. It conveniently makes the politically expedient exemption for three of the world's largest polluters: China, Russia and India. By the keyoto protocol, these countries can continue to build factories and cola burning plants with little or no emission control devices. On other hand, it penalizes the most aggressive countries that are on their own making big climate improvements: the USA and Canada. I have met many people who, unlike me, are making their determinations on global warming and the Keyoto protocol without having actually read any of the actual documents. They take their information from newspapers and other journalists who have also not read any of the actual documents but try to funnel down complex and voluminous quantities of data into a 30 second sound bite or a 4 column newspaper article. It is popular to join the politically correctness of blaming President George Bush and the Unites States for the climate cycles we are observing and the pollution that has occurred all over the globe. However, anyone with an ounce of intellectual honesty cannot truly believe that all the ills of the global warming crowd occurred in the last eight years or on one continent.
Pollution is ubiquitous global problem. It has been accumulating for centuries around the globe. It occurs for many reasons: one is ignorance of the potential dangers of industry and development; another is greed, evil, dishonesty, misrepresentation, self-righteousness. In the final analysis, it boils down to sin. These traits are inherent to all men regardless to race, color, national origin, political persuasion or ethnicity. Pollution also knows no national boundaries, no political persuasion, no racial preferences, no social status.
We need to take care of our earth because it is the right thing to do. It is the responsible thing to do. Our world is important because it belongs to God. Our climate is important because we need to leave a better world for our kids and grand kids than the one we found. We need to reduce our emissions because pollution not only affects the our lungs, it affects our entire bodies, our entire cell structure, our entire lifestyle. We need to investigate, develop and promote new technologies that allows us to live freely while improving the living standards of our global brothers and sisters. How many of us can take on stopping global challenges? May I suggest that we begin with making a difference in our communities? We expect cheap goods and fast results. Look at what we purchase; how much of all this stuff do we need? Let us hold corporations to making sound decisions for sustainable business operations rather than quick quarterly profits. Let us stay away from disposable and use more reusable, repairable and recyclable.
In the final analysis, the earth is not ours. We are just stewards who get to use it and prepare it for those who come behind us. It did not take us eight years to cause the problems that we have and it will take solid, sensible, non-political, non-partisan, ethical and unbiased scientific solutions to repair the strain that we have caused. If you need Al Gore and the United Nations to tell us that we need to be more responsible in how we live and what we expect in our standards of living, then we are mistaken because neither of them are presenting sound, reasonable, ethical or scientific solutions. If we think that carbon-free is the solution, then go back to chemistry class because carbon is a building block of life: it is here to stay.
What ever happened to doing things because they were right, because it is the best for mankind and for our community?
