We'll Inherit The Earth, But We Don't Want It!

There's a very conservative guy where I work, who has been heard claiming, "Democrats don't care about terrorism hitting the U.S." I try not to argue with him in order to keep that fragile sanity that is so important in the workplace. But on Friday I saw him handing the book State of Fear to a coworker, and he started talking about how any global warming is caused by recent volcanic activity and not the affect of humanity. Lovely. I still kept my mouth shut.

On Saturday I caught an episode of Nova on PBS called Dimming of the Sun, and I was really frightened for the first time since the war in Iraq began. This time, however, I hold little hope that the next Presidential Administration can get us out of our mess.

Global Dimming, not to be confused with but very much a partner of Global Warming, is caused from polution particles in the air which block the sun's light enough to cool down some of the effects of global warming, but at the same time causing additional environmental chaos. One of the reasons the effects of Global Warming have not been as clear as predicted, is because Global Dimming has been counteracting it, to a certain degree. Unfortunately, its very much like a highwire act, where the acrobat holds a pole in front of him in order to maintain balance in the center, Global Warming and Global Dimming are weights precariously added to the ends of the pole. Should one of the weights be removed, the balance will faulter on the other side. Additionally, the added weight is keeping the acrobat from moving forward. I would also like to compare this to playing russian roulette with a gun at each temple....

In case you haven't seen the episode, read up on Global Dimming as much as you can and pray to your gods that science can find a way out of the coming crisis.