The debate is over. Now what do we do?

I can't be silent anymore. I've been jumping out of my skin and have been obsessed with climate change since watching An Inconvenient Truth a couple of weeks ago. I was expecting political dogma and fear mongering which is the modus operandi of some of the environmental zealots. However, this film focused on the science and presented it in a way that made it accessible and "connected the dots" between all the global warming events that I have read about over the past 20 years. I'm a scientist by training so the case was extremely convincing. I watched it again last night and listened to the producers commentary and it was fascinating that they were compelled to make this film to inform people about global climate change. Ironically, they marketed it as the most terrifying film you will see and I agree. I've been having nightmares and like the producers I feel compelled do something proactive in order to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases pumped into the atmosphere.

This hit home for me personally this year because of the really crappy ski season. The weather is warm and there is very little snow in the Sierra Nevada. This may be a seasonal variation but last year we got lots of rain dumped on us. Seeing the before and after images of the glacier melts in the Gore film made me think of the end of skiing/snowboarding and there will be warmer years ahead rather than cooler ones. There is no doubt in my mind that weather is changing and is becoming more extreme. The time to act to reduce C02 emissions was 30 years ago.

We're at a tipping point and we have to act within the next 10 years or this planet will become hostile to human habitation. The global warming naysayers are on the wrong side of history and will be judged as quaint as those in Galileo's time who believed that the sun revolved around the earth. There seems to be a lot of news items these days discussing climate change and it is going to be the big issue in the next election. Even John McCain said last week:

"The debate is over, my friends. Now the question is what do we do? Do we act, do we care enough about the young people of the next generation to act seriously and meaningfully, or are we going to just continue this debate and this discussion?"

Global climate change is the most important issue of our generation. Much more important than the war in Iraq. Let the Neocons battle the Islamic fascists for control of the oil fields. Oil is old news and the people in countries who hate us the most like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iran and Venezuela have most of it. We support these countries directly and inadvertently because of our addiction to oil. Our oil dependence has made the United States the crack whore of the global community. They charge us a fortune for our habit and bitch slap us just like a crack whore indentured to her pimp. It was really embarrassing when Hugo Chavez gives us smack talk at the UN. We must move beyond our dependency on fossil fuels to reduce our carbon emissions and increase our energy security. If we can change our carbon addiction then in 50 years these oil exporting countries will revert to the 3rd world deserts that they once were and no one will care.

I want my daughter to live on a sustainable planet and enjoy the mountains, trees, oceans and snow. I owe it to her to fix the damage to the atmosphere that we have done.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide image courtesy of Global Warming Art.