An Opposing View on the Cause of Global Warming

Here is the opposing documentary that basically says yes Global Warming exists, but it's just a natural occurence.

Link to full video here: The Great Global Warming Swindle:

Video player of same here:

I think the most interesting aspect is now that this documentary is starting to make the rounds, news articles stating that the documentary is while compelling, actually unfounded, are coming up through the media.

Here is one article stating the documentary is flawed, even saying that scientests in the film feel misrepresented:

Move to block emissions 'swindle' DVD::

Global Warming and Foreign Agression

Quick editorial that states that as the environment changes, people may fight over the limiting resources available.

Warming and global security - New York Times
Article Last Updated: 04/23/2007 11:34:44 AM PDT

PEOPLE WHO give short shrift to environmental matters pay attention when national security becomes part of the conversation. So the debate over global warming took a useful turn last week as diplomats and retired military officers drew persuasive connections between climate change and the very real potential for regional upheavals.

Last Monday, 11 retired admirals and generals released a detailed 68-page report arguing that climate change could be a "threat multiplier" in already fragile parts of the world. Rising sea levels could threaten the livelihoods of 4 billion people living within 45 miles of Asia's coastlines. In Africa, recurring heat waves could cause widespread shortages of food and water, leading to large-scale migrations and escalating tensions.

Anthony Zinni, a retired Marine general, made the point elegantly when he said that "we will pay for this one way or the other" — either now, to control the emission of greenhouse gases, or later, in military engagements and "human lives."

These same themes were taken up at the United Nations, where the Security Council — under Britain's leadership — held its first-ever discussion of the link between climate change and international conflict. An overwhelming majority of nations voiced grave concerns about climate change, and many urged stricter worldwide controls on greenhouse gases.
Among the few doubters were the United States and China — neither of which has mandatory controls (the Bush administration actively opposes them). Both argued that the Council was the wrong place to raise the issue. What they were really saying was that they don't want to be pushed. In an alliance of denial, China and the United States are using each other's inaction as an excuse to do nothing.

That is yet another reason why the Congress should be moving ahead with legislation to curb and reverse America's production of greenhouse gases. With members of the military elite joining mayors, governors and business leaders in demanding action, the Democrats in Congress have all the arguments they need to take the lead.

Ramping UP

Listening to a video on doubting that global warming is man made while reading articles and other blogs on global warming. Tons of different opinions, I mean tons, lots of passionate often differing views. What causes it, what solves it, simply put, the only thing that people agree on is that it is occurring.

I'll post the video shortly as it is interesting and does give a compelling theory that global warming is happening but is nothing to be concerned about.

Two other pieces caught my eye:

One is the article above.

The other is the news piece on Sheryl Crow and her call to action to limit toilet paper use to one square per person per visit. This great well respected clearly heard voice chose toilet paper limitations as her cause? She couldn't have stood behind bio diesel school buses or something else that doesn't involve well... areas close to one's taint? Regardless of the facts, there are so many ways to contribute positively without going to the place that is all my business and none of yours. I think this will hurt her career. She comes across like she's living in a bubble.

So since this is the beginning of the blog, let's start there. I was a professional student, spent 10 years getting 2 degrees, both of them environmentally based. I was never an activist per se, I was always more of a mediator, I saw both sides. I remember too well the ironic bumper stickers on folks cars that said, "Stop Offshore Oil Drilling". I'd see people protest against the lumber companies but not one of these folks wanted to live in a plastic house or whatever you would live in if we never cut down another tree. I don't ever want to be an extremist at anything. It just doesn't play well.

What I did want to do is find that happy ground where we protect the rare, sustain the sustainable and renew the renewable. It's a lesson that is slowly getting some traction, that a big 800 pound company can be just as profitable with a green perspective as they did when they were trashing the environment.

So I got these two degrees and then lived in several third world countries in South America over the course of the next 3 years. It didn't happen overnight, but looking back, living abroad pretty much stripped me of most of my environmental roots. I saw so much damage being done, so much unstoppable irreplaceable damage. I mean, here was a culture that burnt the skins off their tomatoes because the skins were toxic from all the pesticides used. Forests being burned, soil eroding into rivers, people washing and crapping in the same waters, no sense of exhaust emissions.

I extrapolated what I was seeing on this one continent to all the other continents that were living in similar conditions and quickly came to the conclusion that there was nothing I could do to prevent this global rape from occurring. I put my environmental hat on the shelf and started living a normal American life of material satisfaction with little regard to it's consequences.

Then we had a couple of really hot summers and I start hearing about the glaciers melting. I start reading, I see the Gore movie, and I realize there is something one person can do. Just by changing out my light bulbs to fluorescent bulbs I'm helping. I used to hate fluorescent lighting but they make some bulbs that mimic natural light pretty well. So I change out all my bulbs.

So great, I got rid of some light bulbs, what else? Well, I owned a bookstore, how could that help global warming? One evening, there it was, suddenly I had an idea for possibly creating some significant change. I tossed the idea around and these ideas created more ideas and before you know it, there was a plan - sell books online creating a national footprint and give a portion of the money to charities that are helping solve the global warming problem.

Okay, can't use exhaustion as an excuse to not start this thing. I used to write a journal back in college, put everything in there, my college life, my sex life, my spiritual life, deep thoughts went into those tomes. I think I filled 5 books worth of stuff concerning to no one but myself.

Flashing forward to today, I needed a way to communicate my desire to do something to help on the global warming front. The blog was a natural answer. See part of the problem here is I'm not exactly an expert at global warming, but I want to become one. So by creating a community that I can share my views and have other's share their views and get us all together in this melding pot of global warming issues, hell, the next thing you know I am doing the right thing.

Right now, I don't know what I'm doing. All I have is conviction and some passion to help solve the issues at hand and be less a part of the problem.