Is Global Warming REAL?

OK, now I know what our friend Stephen Colbert says global warming is real because Al Gore's movie made money. But seriously, let's think about this from another standpoint, shall we?



Now, I am not going to say we should NOT find alternative energy sources, in fact I think that is more important than just about anything right now for a number of reasons. I also am not going to get caught up in talking about my carbon footprint. I live in Tampa, Florida... the land of driving everywhere. No public transportation means hop in your SUV and drive there.



What I would like to bring up (and it's been brought up before I think) is exactly how much impact does human activity have on our planet? How can we say that MAN is responsible for the melting polar caps when the caps froze over numerous times only to recede and melt some. Did dinosaurs cause global cooling thus making themselves extinct?



The thought that pops in my head is "golly, we sure are full of ourselves thinking we have THAT much control over our planet!!!" I mean, global warming is being touted as the reason for the number of hurricanes over the past few years... of course, you can ignore the fact that each year they predict numerous catastrophic level hurricanes only to be disappointed. Now, do the insurance companies refund the excess money they charged due to the so-called "experts" claims of a highly destructive hurricane, season? Of course not!



My point is exemplified in a pretty slick book called "Decipher" from a guy named Stel Pavlou. It's a Michael-Crichton-esque kind of story tying global warming to an as yet undiscovered connection between the ancient Atlantis stories, and celestial events that mankind CANNOT possibly predict, let alone control.



Now, granted this is a work of fiction, but it brings up some strong points. How much effect does mankind have on our globe? Scientists say that the earth tilts on its access every few hundred thousand years; are we in a tilting phase now that might have much more to do with global warming than any amount of pollution we could produce?



On top of all that, let's say God (or Yahweh, Allah, Buddah, whatever...) is real and we are his little snow globe. Maybe every few thousand years he shakes it up by melting the ice, flooding everything (Noah, anyone?), and starting over.



If any of these are true, does it really matter whether I drive an electric car or a Hummer? Can I gleefully toss my plastic bottles in the same trash bag as my coffee grounds?



So I say, let's not be so damn serious all the time. Yes, we SHOULD be more responsible. We see every day what the dependency on oil has done to our world. How many people were killed in car bombings yesterday? I don't even need to go to CNN.com to tell you it was probably more than two dozen.



Now that that is settled, hand me my SPF 30... I'm going to the pool!



Peace out...

Heitz