----- Original Message -----
From: "John D. Giorgis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 8:54 PM
Subject: Re: Bill Moyers Reports: Earth on Edge
> At 11:55 PM 6/15/01 -0700 Doug Pensinger wrote:
> >This PBS special looks like it might be worth watching:
> >http://www.pbs.org/earthonedge/program/index.html
> >
> >A blurb from the web page:
> >
> >"Bill Moyers and his team of award-winning producers ...take a look at
> what is
> >happening to our planet and what we can do about it. Bill Moyers Reports:
> >Earth on Edge probes two of the most critical questions of the new
century:
> >Will Earth continue to have the capacity to support the human species and
> >civilization? Moreover, what can we do to protect our life-support
system-the
> >natural environment?"
>
> My tape didn't record right. (Well the VCR worked, but I forgot to check
> that my antenna was properly tuned.)
>
> How was it? Did he seriously aruge that human civilization is
threatened?
>
> JDG
Are you seriously saying it is not threatened?
The conservatives hold on to a flawed morality system that places much to
much importance on humans, and much to much faith in human "superiority" and
enginuity. They believe that there is no crisis that we cannot solve with
industry (or if there is a crisis that we can not solve, God will intervene
to save us). Well guess what, there is a solution, and we already know what
that solution is: stop mucking things up.
Do you, JDG, deny global warming? Even President Bush acknoledged that
global warming is a fact and that humans have had a hand in causing it (he
just claims that there isn't enough research into how to best solve the
problem, so he figures that we might as well make things worse while we are
figuring that out). Global warming is a global catastrophe waiting to
happen. The rising global temperature is causing the ice shelves in
antarctica to melt and fracture. Have you read Green Mars? The description
of what would happen if the permafrost ice shelves in antarctica fell into
the ocean was pretty accurate. First a huge tidal wave would sweep over the
coastal regions, then the sea level will rise several feet. Do you realize
how much of the United States is at or very near sea level? There will be
flooding in most or all coastal regions, as well as in much of the
Mississippi valley and plains regions, and like Atlantis, it will not happen
gradually, it will happen in a day. Once that has happened, no ammount of
disaster relief or human enginuity will solve the problem. The flooded
lands will stay flooded for decades (if not centuries), until the ice
shelves are redeposited via snowfall onto Antarctica. The falling of the
ice shelves into the ocean will have one good side effect though, those
slabs of ice are so huge that, in the process of melting, they will actually
cool the planet (it takes a whole lot of heat energy to melt ice),
temporarily reversing global warming (then we will be faced with the
challenge of solving global flooding).
And global warming is only one crisis out of so many that we have imposed
upon ourselves.
Funny thing, the Bible, Genesis says we were given dominion over all the
land and all the creatures in it. How should we rule over the land? (Read
"How would God want us to rule over the land?") As a loving ruler who cares
for the land and it's citizens and protects them, or as an evil dictator
that destroys the land and kills its citizens for greed. Truly, humans are
the nazis of the planet, and we use the same excuses that the nazi soldiers
used, "It's survival of the fittest.", "We are superior, so that gives us
the right.", and "We are only doing what we were told."
For the record, I don't think the Earth is in trouble, after humans are
finished distroying themselves, the Earth will bounce back quite nicely. I
just don't like the irreversable damage we are doing to certain species in
the process of destroying ourselves.
How about instead of spending billions on a missle shield that even you say
is inadequate, we spend that money on solar power installation (not
research, actuall implementation). It only requires about 40 m^2 of solar
pannels to provide enough electricity for the average American household.
Switching to solar power would significantly reduce our dependance on fossil
fuels, which in turn
would reduce our production of CO2 substancially. 1.2 billion dollars could
install (at regular retail and installation prices) enough solar pannels to
provide power for 40000 American households, and that will provide power for
those households indefinately, with only routine mainanance and occasional
replacing of the solar pannels. Hell, if we ditched this 1.3 trillion
dollar tax cut, we would have more than enough money to manufacture and
install enough solar pannels to provide solar power for *every* household in
America, and it will still save the American people money, because they
won't ever have to pay an electric bill again. Ok, that's a little extreme,
and the rich people, who pay the most taxes, would see the least benefit
from that, so it's not really fair to them. I am glad to see that part of
the tax cuts will go to incentives for efficient/renewable energy sources,
though.
And John, specially for you, here is an MSN article that proves that the
environment is a much bigger issue in politics than you think it is:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/590923.asp (and George Bush's anti-environmental
stances are just making more and more people concerned about the
environment... <dark grin> my predictions about what the reaction to the
election outcome would be have come true. Ha ha ha! Ha Ha Ha! HA HA HA!)
}8^)> (devilish smile, complete with horns and goatee).
The Dolphin
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
