Dangerous Tea Party — Positive, Intuitive, Creative Musings from Brilliant Minds

Though there's a bit of a pejorative nature to the term, I am, at heart, an information junkie. One of my biggest assets, however, is my ability to extrapolate and integrate information from the myriad sources that serve as my teachers, and in turn, teach others. As it is in the collective, rather than in isolation, that we grow, I invite others to communicate their ideas and experiences here, as well, so we can each grow and improve our thoughts – and beings.

Monday, September 18, 2006

The Beat Goes On...

7/8/06

I received the following e-mail from a friend this morning. He's becoming increasingly frustrated with the debate and hysteria surrounding Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth. In fact, he gave a great speech recently in our Toastmasters club about how we should really look more to things we can change than continue to worry about global warming. I couldn't agree more.

From T.O.:

Good article, still a little too much doom and gloom. For example, technological efficiencies have improved drastically and there is no reason to believe the trend will not continue going forward. Additionally, he isn’t accounting for the possibility of this being more of a natural phenomenon, in other words, how much do we attribute to natural internal variation v.s. human behavior...oh yeah, attribution...tricky word to remember...

Plus he isn’t mentioning that as recent as 1990 scientists believed we were headed for another ice age.

He is spot on about Kyoto from what I understand.

I continue to enjoy the fun comments about Gore from all the different sources, though…

My response:

I agree. I think it's hubris on the part of American humans to think that we really have all that much to do with the natural shifts of the COSMOS. Global weather patterns are not unique to planet Earth. Where did these people get the idea that because we happen to populate the planet, we have any power to affect it on a cosmic level? Sure, our technology and environmental pollutions no doubt are having some impact on the climate...but I'd be willing to bet they are insignificant, when measured against what would have naturally occurred if there had never been human life on this planet. Unfortunately, it's one of those situations where we'll never know...but if we could, all the alarmists might just back down a little bit.

Another thing I've never seen any mention of is the adaptability of ALL the creatures who inhabit this planet. Yes, humans are contracting more cancer and other diseases than we used to...but I still hold that that has a lot more to do with our psychology than our physiology. As our environs change, though, our bodies adapt with them. Of course, if the surface temps get to sizzling, we probably won't be able to withstand that...but if it gets slightly colder, hotter, more humid, or less so...we'll adjust. We always have before.

I have to go back to your speech — let's work with the things we can change. Let's change our attitudes to ones of gratitude, rather than victim. Let's live that motto of thinking globally and acting locally.

The last thing about this article is that he gives it up as a lost cause that people will be willing to make shifts in the right direction. It always absolutely makes me cringe when people say that things are impossible. This will never work. No one will buy into that. Marketing ALWAYS works. All it takes to get anyone to do anything is putting the right spin on it. Getting people to buy into being more selfless...about everything up to and including the environment...is no doubt a tough sell. But to say that we can't do it is to write off our innate human wisdom and drive toward perfection. None of us would be here if we didn't have that... I think it's just a matter of getting the right people to lead the way.

This is one reason Oprah pisses me off so much. What the fuck good does it do to have all the power and influence she wields when she's still dealing with stuff like recommending good beach reading? Where are her causes????

I admire Bill and Marilyn Gates and Bono more than any people on the planet. We don't have many true heroes anymore, but those three are certainly among them. And anyone who says Bill got rich by stealing from others needs to take a look at his/her own motivations before he/she starts casting stones. I'm so tired of hearing that stupid argument.

Thanks for getting me going on this topic!

L

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