Mother Nature is pissed
Mother Nature won't be taking our abuse anymore, so get ready to feel her wrath. Be prepared for flash floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, desertification, drought, tornadoes and typhoons, coming faster and more often.
Over the last few years there has been an incredible acceleration in climate change causing carnage globally. Yet, narrow-minded right-wing media pundits still claim that the climate change caused by global warming is debatable, or that it does not have any relation to human activities. They claim that the world is so big that we humans couldn't possibly have a lasting negative effect on it. Don't underestimate the destructive power of six billion human beings.
Scientists are no longer debating climate change; it's an accepted scientific fact. The climate is changing, the weather is more unpredictable, the glaciers are melting and the temperature is rising, especially in Canada's arctic.
Winter ice roads used to reach distant Inuit communities are treacherously thin and open far less often than ever in history. Global Warming is not only a threat to Canada's arctic communities, but also to all arctic life. But you don't have to be in the arctic to feel the effects of global warming, just go outside.
Anyone who still seriously doubts global warming must live a hermitically sealed life, in a climate-controlled basement with no windows, getting their information from the same right-wing pundits that would tell you smoking was good for you if it would boost their corporate salary. In fact, this is happening, the same companies that fought the surgeon general over cigarette warnings about lung cancer are doing the same for the big oil companies, who are the primary cause of this new, more profitable, global cancer.
These public relations experts are trying to create controversy by any means and muddy the argument to create doubt and somehow turn this issue into a political one, when it really is not. Saving our lives and our planet from total destruction is not a political or two-sided argument. Al Gore argues that it is a moral and ethical question saying, “If we allow this to happen, it is deeply unethical.” Yet it is more than simply an ethical question, it is a question of survival. The question is this: are you prepared to take action to save your own life?
Often we are so shortsighted that we put our immediate desires above our future needs. People pollute and consume all they desire, thinking only of their present lifestyle instead of the future of life itself. We need to make serious lifestyle changes; we need to choose what we will sacrifice, our SUVs or our children, our air conditioning or air itself. It's our choice to make, but that choice needs to be made very soon.
Although the situation is critical and needs to be addressed immediately, once people realize the severity of climate change they often become hopeless and feel that humanity is doomed to die off like the dinosaur. They feel that there is no possibly way that we can reverse the effects, and save our planet, while still maintaining a high quality of life.
Quality of life is not dependant on consumerism, it is based on human happiness, and we cannot be happy if we are living in a polluted world, no matter how much electricity and consumer goods we own. Changing our lifestyle will actually improve the quality of our lives, and with the help of proven technology that currently exists we can drastically reverse the process of global warming. Clean, efficient, green energy can replace dirty, polluting, fossil fuels that are being used around the world. We need to consume less energy, create more efficient uses of energy, and invest in green energy. You can protect our beautiful planet, or let it become a toxic, unlivable, wasteland. Just remember that you will have to live in it either way.
Come see An Inconvenient Truth Tuesday, January 30 - 8 pm in T-1003
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
Over the last few years there has been an incredible acceleration in climate change causing carnage globally. Yet, narrow-minded right-wing media pundits still claim that the climate change caused by global warming is debatable, or that it does not have any relation to human activities. They claim that the world is so big that we humans couldn't possibly have a lasting negative effect on it. Don't underestimate the destructive power of six billion human beings.
Scientists are no longer debating climate change; it's an accepted scientific fact. The climate is changing, the weather is more unpredictable, the glaciers are melting and the temperature is rising, especially in Canada's arctic.
Winter ice roads used to reach distant Inuit communities are treacherously thin and open far less often than ever in history. Global Warming is not only a threat to Canada's arctic communities, but also to all arctic life. But you don't have to be in the arctic to feel the effects of global warming, just go outside.
Anyone who still seriously doubts global warming must live a hermitically sealed life, in a climate-controlled basement with no windows, getting their information from the same right-wing pundits that would tell you smoking was good for you if it would boost their corporate salary. In fact, this is happening, the same companies that fought the surgeon general over cigarette warnings about lung cancer are doing the same for the big oil companies, who are the primary cause of this new, more profitable, global cancer.
These public relations experts are trying to create controversy by any means and muddy the argument to create doubt and somehow turn this issue into a political one, when it really is not. Saving our lives and our planet from total destruction is not a political or two-sided argument. Al Gore argues that it is a moral and ethical question saying, “If we allow this to happen, it is deeply unethical.” Yet it is more than simply an ethical question, it is a question of survival. The question is this: are you prepared to take action to save your own life?
Often we are so shortsighted that we put our immediate desires above our future needs. People pollute and consume all they desire, thinking only of their present lifestyle instead of the future of life itself. We need to make serious lifestyle changes; we need to choose what we will sacrifice, our SUVs or our children, our air conditioning or air itself. It's our choice to make, but that choice needs to be made very soon.
Although the situation is critical and needs to be addressed immediately, once people realize the severity of climate change they often become hopeless and feel that humanity is doomed to die off like the dinosaur. They feel that there is no possibly way that we can reverse the effects, and save our planet, while still maintaining a high quality of life.
Quality of life is not dependant on consumerism, it is based on human happiness, and we cannot be happy if we are living in a polluted world, no matter how much electricity and consumer goods we own. Changing our lifestyle will actually improve the quality of our lives, and with the help of proven technology that currently exists we can drastically reverse the process of global warming. Clean, efficient, green energy can replace dirty, polluting, fossil fuels that are being used around the world. We need to consume less energy, create more efficient uses of energy, and invest in green energy. You can protect our beautiful planet, or let it become a toxic, unlivable, wasteland. Just remember that you will have to live in it either way.
Come see An Inconvenient Truth Tuesday, January 30 - 8 pm in T-1003
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
