Into The Fire

For anyone who still has their head up their tuckus about global warming, the United Nations has just issued a report that's worth taking a look at. Basically, it says that all the wild weather we've seen around the world this year is only going to get worse. From the recent flooding in much of England, to the extreme heat waves that have hit central Europe, to the severe storms that have wreaked havoc in China, to the melting ice caps, and to the drought that is affecting much of the United States, it is becoming obvious that the Earth's climate is undergoing major changes.

Recently compiled statistics show that 11 of the warmest years on record have occurred since 1994. And things aren't improving in that regard, as January and April of this year also set global temperature records.

So what can we do at this point? According to a book by James Lovelock, it's already too late. According to him, even if man somehow succeeded in ending all carbon emissions as of tomorrow, it wouldn't matter. The effects of global warming are simply irreversible at this point. At best, says Lovelock, we can only hope to slightly mitigate the effects. Interestingly, he argues that the only hope we have of accomplishing even that much is a heavy investment in nuclear energy.

Yep, nuke power. Lovelock says that the danger posed by nuclear power and the resulting waste is actually far less than the damage that would be caused by the release of that much more carbon into the atmosphere.

Nor is Lovelock a big fan of wind farms or ethanol. His argument there is that by cutting down forests to make room for wind turbines and crops, we're actually cutting our own throats because we're reducing the Earth's capacity to convert CO2 back into oxygen.

So what to do at this point? Despite Lovelock's objections, I plan to invest heavily in alcohol.... Just not for my car.