Global warming is such a divisive issue. I never would have thought so many people would disagree on the role mankind has played in warming the planet. When I look at critics of conservative politicians they say the doubters are all being funded by big business. Maybe that is true but when I listen to some of these politicians talk about the environment they seem to be sincere. It’s not that they don’t appreciate the environment, it’s that they don’t accept that human engineering is responsible for accelerating the planet’s warming cycle.
Scientists say the world has been growing warmer for millions of years, but it cools down every now and then and through what we call an “ice age”. The ice ages are really just “glaciation periods” because the real ice age lasts for millions of years. Earth’s ice ages are ice ages because the Earth periodically forms a lot of ice during those ages. There was no ice age when the dinosaurs were ruling the Earth. It was much warmer then.
It’s an awesome thing to think about how many changes the Earth’s environment has passed through over the last 500 million years. We are just on the very cusp of that period. We don’t know much about most of it but life has been shaping the Earth’s environment throughout all that time. When it comes to global warming what we are going through right now is just a mild warming trend compared to things in the past. But it’s happening faster than it would have if we had not been burning coal and oil and chopping down forests for the past 200 to 300 years.
That is what makes mankind’s role in global warming so special. We acted out of ignorance but now we have the science that shows the impact of what we did. The sooner we get away from these carbon-based technologies the better. And the sad thing is that the energy companies that depend on coal, natural gas, and oil for their production could easily invest in alternative energy facilities that would sustain their profits for generations to come. They should be funding politicians who promote change, not politicians who oppose it.
The energy industry has the money and the know-how to help lead mankind into a carbon friendly future. They could be paying to plant forests and channel water into the great desert regions that were once green and lush, and it would cost only a fraction of their profits to do so. Creating forests creates jobs. And creating jobs is a good thing for both the world economy and world peace. The international terrorist organizations recruit their members from young, disaffected, unemployed members of society. They would become weaker and less threatening if young people in poor countries had something to hope for, like jobs in a growth industry.
And yet today we stand in the cross hairs of a world wide conflict that makes it less possible for us to reverse our bad ecological practices. We are less attuned to the environment. We are less attuned to the science. We are growing colder in our responses to the need for change. Yes, many nations have signed agreements to limit carbon emissions but that may be too little too late, and they give themselves so many exemptions these treaties may be ineffective.
We need better plans for managing our energy and environmental needs. The current plans for involving oil companies in the fight against global warming depend on high oil prices and high oil prices depend on high demand. They can do so much more. They should be incentivized to shift their production from extracting carbon-based energy to producing clean energy products that can be used to power the future.
Here is hoping more people warm to the idea of persuading the energy companies to take the lead in changing how we produce and use energy. Their futures depend on it as much as ours.
