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A Reasonable Assumption
by
Frank J.
Regan (December 22, 2007)
A decade and a half ago, I unscientifically began to reason that
since the Industrial Revolution, when the churning of industry and
the transportation of billions from fossil-fuels, the cutting down
of billions of trees, the paving of billions of miles of asphalt
roads, and the billowing billions of tons of industrial waste into
the air, there would be consequences. It seemed a reasonable
assumption that this assault upon our planet’s delicate balance of
Nature, where clean air and clean water are critical to our
existence, should be investigated thoroughly, with the thought that
if there were even the possibility that mankind could affect
something so profound as climate change, finding a conservative
point along the continuum of action and scientific validity should
be paramount.
Given the chaotic nature of our planetary weather system and our
inability to rapidly change our collective behavior, I thought it
would be prudent for an intelligent species to actively rule out the
possibility of anthropogenic climate change. In my unsophisticated
mind, just this hypothesis alone should have sent our species
scurrying to investigate and find the appropriate level in which to
act. Even primitive man would have run before the lion pounced.
However, the politicizing of this issue and the fears from
powerful corporations that the status quo would be disrupted by this
yet unproven concern has seriously affected our species ability to
assess and act on this sensible concern. By the time anthropogenic
climate change has been proven to the satisfaction of every myopic,
monomaniacal ideologue we shall be hurled headlong towards climate
collapse.
So now, after fifteen years and a consensus by the majority of
scientist around the world, we have enough information to act.
Scientists know that more global warming gases in the atmosphere
warms things up and the public understands how difficult it will be
to make positive changes in something as unwieldy as our climate.
Sadly, it has also evolved that it is
the trend of business and anti-environmentalists to set the bar of
environmental concern very high (in some cases absolute scientific
proof) before determining whether or not something constitutes a
danger.
But, the naysayers have not given up and the mainstream media
fails to understand the preeminence of a healthy environment. Their
slavish devotion to their misunderstanding of Objectivity, where
every kook gets his chance to muddy the waters, rules. Every action
towards sustainability seems thwarted by the few and the furious.
Have we come to the point in human history where the angels of our
better judgment have become bereft of intelligent action? For, it
seems in the United State that the rich and powerful are fixated on
their view of reality and that they intend on imposing upon the rest
of us a world, regardless of its merit, without fairness or a chance
for sustainability.
Ultimately, I hope that the world since Bali has decided to act
on Global Warming. Even so, we must fight for life, like the shark
hampered by the parasitic lamprey, while our energies are
relentlessly sucked from us.
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