Energy. You can't write, type, or input the word without thinking of the brilliant Albert Einstein. Whatever our energy needs as a people may be, we already have plenty of it, right here on earth, thanks to God.
Okay, that was a cheap shot. I apologize. Everyone knows I don't believe in any gods and that I despise what religions are doing to our precious societies. If Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and the rest would actually do something -- anything! -- to promote world peace and understanding, I would probably convert, just as a gesture of support. Because I have never opposed faiths. They just are not for me. I'm sure, when we each die, our soul (i.e., consciousness), goes somewhere or another, and I truly hope that that is a better place.
Maybe it's a Universal Soul Repository (USR), where the accumulated wisdom we've achieved on this planet gets banked into a massive spiritual database that will somehow be applied (by a superior power) to improve life here on earth, and all the other places where life exists throughout the vastness of space.
But I doubt it. Our genes tell a story and it isn't a pretty one. Our planet's history tells a story, and that, too, is not a pretty one.
Here is the essential qualification for any candidate who wishes to be President or Vice-President of the U.S., IMHO. Admit that climate change is at least partially, and probably largely, caused by human activity.
Anyone who cannot do that, again IMHO, is too intellectually-challenged to be a leader. So that is the bottom line. My advice to all registered voters is to check out the candidates' positions on global climate change. As you do so, don't think about your own life, which like mine, is not at risk, no matter what happens.
Think instead about your children, and their children. Please, please, please think far into the future. You and I will be dust, but there will be others struggling with the same kinds of issues that face us, here and now, in our time.
This is not a Democratic issue, or a Republican issue. This is a question about the survival of our species, homo spiens. Screw politics and politicians! My question is who gets it and who doesn't?
The answer, if you truly care about the future when both of us are long gone, should be clear.
1 comment:
Actually, John McCain has made pledges to work with congress on the problems of global climate change. It was one of the key issues to which conservatives have been very sensitive, and he had a lot of us pretty upset. As you know, we generally disagree with human culpability, for reasons I've discussed here before.
In my view, we aren't even close to understanding the climate changes that Earth has gone through over its long history. But change it has, long before man showed up, and there's every reason to believe it will continue, long after man has exited.
It may surprise you to know that even conservatives understand some of the concerns associated with a changing climate. This old planet seems to be cooling a bit over the most recent 10 years, and we now have educated people suggesting that we are, in fact, entering a long term cooling trend. Fact is, we just don't know enough to say anything about climate change with certainty. This is why we are reluctant to commit to a multi-trillion dollar effort that may be largely wasted as it destroys our economy. Without a robust economy, you might as well give up on significant progress in any of the affected sciences.
On the other hand, significant warming or cooling will require adaptation for the survival of the species. This is an area of technology where we are on firmer footing, and there is much we could do with our resources to meet those challenges. We could also continue to pursue the sciences to better understand what really is going on out there. Of course, most of the answers will be found in the private sector, not by politicians and bureaucrats. Do not send them more money expecting them to use it on such discovery – their track record is abysmal.
As we have cooled just a little recently, my disappointment has been huge. Listening to Gore and Moore, I was looking forward to a tropical climate here in Ohio soon. Could you imagine the value of my little acreage if that happened? Well, I probably won't see it before I exit, but one makes do.
On this religious thing, some of the best people I've ever met have been very religious. Decent, conscientious, kind people in no small part because their faith taught human principles of love and forgiveness (something we all need, by the way). That some few will twist a religion to fit a radical agenda is not the fault of the faith but rather the faithless.
Sort of like reading about an SUV running over a pedestrian and thinking, “Damn SUVs, we need to get rid of them.” Usually we find on closer examination that the accident had more to do with the operator. Might seem funny, but there you are.
Physicist Michael Greene titled his book, “The Elegant Universe”. Great name. The more our sciences progress, the more wondrous and profound it all seems. As he speculates, we are increasingly tempted to believe that our species is simply not wired to understand all that is. In my simple mind that makes a lot of sense. Though there is certainly much more waiting for us to discover, and our natural curiosity will not soon abate, we are nonetheless confronted with a daunting reality; infinity. That pesky critter laughs at us when we study the very large and very small. We never seem to find an end, and when we create one theoretically, the next question becomes, “what's on the other side of that 'end'?” If my little brain had no other challenges, infinity would be enough to suggest that something much bigger was afoot out there.
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