Is it just me, or is it HOT?

"Experts say this will cause melting at the polar ice caps, sea levels to rise and weather patterns to change, bringing floods, famines and violent storms — and putting millions of lives at risk."

Um - does anyone else feel a bit apprehensive about this comment? This is taken from a UN report from 2001, conducted by hundreds of experts who study weather patterns, and concluded that global temperatures will (it didn't say "may", which s even more astonishing) rise between 2.5 - 10 degrees F this century, leading to the description above. And according to a new report from The Meteorological Office in London just issued, 2007 is set to be the hottest year ON RECORD, ever. Part is certainly due to the natural cyclical existence of "El Nino", a general fluxation of weather temperatures globally every few years, but the rest is undoubtedly due to the continued increase of greenhouse gases and carbon emmissions around the globe. What's more, the world's 10 hottest years ever recorded have been since 1994, and the effects are noticable in places such as Austrailia, which is experiencing its longest dry spell in recorded history.

Regardless of whether you believe in or deny humanity has a hand in global warming, for whatever reason it IS happening. What's more, we can predict with almost certain accuracy the alarming outcome to this world and our global society if this in fact reaches a temperature "past the point of no return". Massive animal extinctions, world-wide flooding, changes in weather patterns, increased droughts, floods, and more intensive hurricanes. These things have been, are, and will continue to happen, with the potential to only increase in numbers and intensities. I find it quite fascinating then, that we as a knowledgable, "aware" society, spend so much time focusing on bipartisan arguing, gay marriage, or preparing for another defense against a terrorist attack, instead of what I feel is a lack-luster approach against something that seems to be deemed a "may or may not" happen.

It may be the case that global destruction due to changing weather patterns won't happen - I can concede that. But what is the harm in erring on the side of caution? What would be the harm in investing millions, if not billions of dollars and human-hours, into combating the globes rising temperatures? The outcome would be millions of new jobs to be filled; new careers that would be created; new technologies for renewable, clean energy created, removing our crutch for foreign oil and fossil fuels; and a cleaner, healthier environment. Even if it all turned out to be "not true" (the global-warming doom), we'd still come out ahead for the time and money invested in the pursuit of combating a rising global temperature.

But if it turns out that the predictions ARE true, and we do nothing, the results will be world-wide chaos, and we would only have ourselves to blame - could we have such blame on our conscious? The writing is on the wall now for such predictions, and I feel its time to truly accept responsibility and prepare for a very different future. If you think I am overreacting, just look at the ripple-effect from Hurricane Katrina - mob-rule, shootings, lootings, millions of people w/out clean water and living spaces, disease, and a destroyed economy for the area, which affected some parts of the nation in terms of oil-refining, shipping, etc. What would happen if that same level of hurricane hit every year? What about every year, in multiple coasts around the world? How about the flooding of Japan, our east coast, and droughts in Europe and the Middle East?

A new terrorist attack, or a global pandemic of the HV51 bird-flu is not guaranteed, but global warming, whether we have a hand in the cause of it or not, is - how are we preparing for it?