OK, I’M CONVINCED, NOW WHAT?

OK, I’M CONVINCED, NOW WHAT?

Not the solution.  You know it...I know it!

Ever since the first time I heard the term “carbon footprint,” I have been skeptical about the Global Warming theory.  I have finally been convinced.

All the facts and numbers I have seen seem to validate this theory.  That did not convince me.  The vast majority of scientists, scholars and smart people believe in this theory.  That did not convince me.

I have really been more browbeaten than convinced, and I am just tired of raising doubts.  The first step to browbeating me was to stop calling it Global Warming and instead to call it Climate Change.  From that moment on, any storm or weather anomaly was blamed on Climate Change.   The final beat-down that changed my position was I was no longer a Skeptic of Global Warming, but I became a “Climate Change DENIER!”

Skepticism is an intellectual process.  A skeptic wants more proof, a skeptic has questions that remain unanswered, a skeptic does not jump on the bandwagon and blindly follow what he has been told.  A DENIER is a person with his head in the sand.  A denier ignores all facts and figures, a denier looks at all the facts and in the face of irrefutable evidence refuses to acknowledge the obvious. 

A skeptic questions the existence of God; a denier votes not guilty at the OJ trial.

I will not be a denier. Climate change is real.  The planet is getting warmer.  Now what?

If we do nothing, the polar icecaps will melt, the coastal regions of the world will be under water, there will be droughts, flooding and general mayhem.  The world’s human population will be decimated.  With the population reduced by two-thirds, carbon dioxide will slowly be reduced, the overheated planet will allow growth of more plants which will further reduce carbon dioxide and the planet will cool.  It will cool after two-thirds of the human race is destroyed.  That is what generally happens in nature when a species dominates.  Oh yeah, we will also lose a bunch of polar bears.

I don’t like that scenario.  I think we are smarter than that. 

The smart people of the world tell us the solution is to conserve.  Drive less, set the thermostat low in the winter and raise it in the summer.  Stop eating beef.  Stop burning coal and gas, and instead use solar and wind power.

I guess that all makes sense, except it is not going to work.  You know it and I know it.  Even if we passed laws to enforce these changes, we cannot pass them globally.  They will have negligible impact.   There are other issues.  Windmills are killing hawks and eagles.  Lots of people don’t like that.  Solar farms take up large areas of land and they disturb their environment.  There are reports of birds being literally fried when they fly through a solar farm.  Lots of people don’t like that either.

If conservation and known alternative energy sources will not stop climate change what will?

The problem with really smart people is they will always tell you why things won’t work.  True vision requires a mind so void of facts and scientific knowledge that it can find solutions unencumbered by reality.  The world is round?  No way.  Voice delivered over a wire?  Impossible.  Radio, TV, internal combustion engine, and the internet all were considered pipe dreams.  A Polaroid camera?  Please…not going to happen.  Yet all these things came to pass.

The Cranky Old Man is just devoid of enough knowledge to offer a visionary solution to climate change.  Develop a technology that takes carbon dioxide and with a little sunlight converts it into energy while pumping water and oxygen out of an exhaust system.  Impossible?  Plants do it, why not us. 

Wait, don’t tell me why not, instead just figure it out and do it.  Smart people can do anything.  It takes a knucklehead to tell you what to do and smart people to do it. 

I’ve done my part.