Uh huh. Yeah. The Jury's still out on this. (Originally published in 2006)
It bewilders my brain to think about the fact that people still believe the jury is out on our effect on this planet and our aiding of global warming.
Now, I have no political affiliation. I don't consider myself a full on liberal or a conservative. I tend to look at the specifics of the issue before making a decision on it. This country (let me stop right here for a second... when I refer to "this country" let's just say I'm talking about North America. Excluding Mexico...so just the US and Canada. We're pretty much the same anyway when it comes to how polarized people become on political and social issues. I'm sure that the US has some great things about it that Canada doesn't have - though I can't think of any off hand - and Canada has a lot of things that are better than our neighbor to the south - off hand, socialized medicine anyone? - For this little blog I'll refer to the US and Canada as one and the same. Okay back to my rant. )
uh...where was I?
Oh yeah. This country is so polarized on every social and political issue it makes me ill.
You've got idiots on both sides, be it Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly or Michael Moore. They all lie and / or stretch the truth to get their points across. Why? Because it's their job as a conservative or a liberal to begrudge and persecute the opposite party. The issue becomes polarized because people want it to be. We love to fight and we want our side to be right. Or, perhaps more importantly, we want the other side to be wrong.
Personally I like to look at all sides of every issue and let it swim around in my head for a while before making a complete decision. Some things I'm liberal about. I'm liberal on gay marriage (just leave them alone already) and prostitution (legalize it and tax the shit out of it). I'm conservative on crime. (Punishments should be harsher, barring the death penalty, and giving heroin users a break and a place to shoot up is just ridiculous). So what does that make me? A Centrist? A Libertarian? Or how about a human being who has his own opinions on various issues?
I'm finding, recently, that two things are happening with two major and important groups of people in my life.
Group .. 1 - My friends and peers. A good chunk of them, I'd say nearly 95 percent are inflexible, crazy, nonconformist liberals. Before an issue is even discussed, it's George Bush's fault. The cops are all bad and the soldiers fighting for our country all shouldn't be there, no matter where they are. If the issue is normally polarized... They are on the liberal side. No matter what.
Group .. 2 - My family. I'd say this one is about 80 percent. Staunch, evangelical, fanatical neo conservatives. No matter what the Republicans (or Stephen Harper's conservatives) do, they are, in some way, defending the country and totally in the right. If the issue is normally polarized... They are on the conservative side. No matter what.
It almost never ever has to do with the issue itself.
Why is this so? I think with group one it's mostly out of pure laziness. I doubt most of my friends can tell me what I mean by polarized. I think maybe 2 of my friends voted in the last election.
With group 2? I think it's because they think group 1 is so lazy they automatically want everything they say to be wrong. Or maybe they believe so strongly in the Bible that any liberal who doesn't must be evil. Or maybe they are just stuck up old people.
What does this have to do with Global warming? Well, I wanted to bash the conservatives for not admitting that it exists. I wanted to bash the conservatives for standing up against global warming. They do it because, well, they're conservatives and if the liberals say that global warming is true, they must be wrong because they're liberals and want to destroy the values of middle America.
I couldn't just let liberals off the hook so easily so I had to bash them a little too.
Let's get back to the values of middle America. So, what does that entail exactly? Well, I think it's driving your gas guzzling SUV to a "steak on an electric grill" church bar-b-q while chucking your empty beer cans out the window and...uh..leaving all of your lights and TV's on while you've gone out.
So the beer can thing was a little harsh.
But do the conservatives in this country actually believe that it's their God given right to ignore how badly we are all destroying the planet? It's painfully obvious how hot our planet is becoming. It's painfully obvious how amazing glaciers are drying up, garbage is piling up and I'm throwing up out of fear that there is no future for my young nieces and nephews. Those crazy liberals, aka, the SCIENTISTS...are convinced.
If the vast majority of the worlds scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planets climate system into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced- a catastrophe of our own making.
Anyhoo...
the whole point of me starting this blog is for this. A list of things that are not hard to do. To make this place a little better and safer for our kids and their kids. (Wow. I sound like a crazy liberal. So I guess I hate Bush and I love trees.)
You know what? Even if the scientists are wrong, and it's not our fault; act like it is.
Don't be lazy you lazy bastards. Do some of this... it's not hard.
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Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb.
Move your thermostat down 2 degress in winter and up 2degrees in summer
Use less hot water
Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
Turn off electronic devices you're not using
Be sure you're recycling
Buy organic foods as much as possible
Avoid heavily packaged products
When it is time for a new car, choose a more fuel efficient vehicle. Buy A Hybrid car.
Carpool
Take public transit
Buy a Bicycle
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these are just a few things. Pick, like three of them.
(Personally, I recycle everything I can. I ride a bike or walk or take a bus everywhere I need to. I'm saving up to buy a Hybrid car and I turn off anything Im not using...and it's not hard.)
Yeah, so I got slightly carried away. Big whoop wanna fight about it?
-Elias
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