The Occasional Solipsist

Superwife and I finally got to see Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' the other night and it was an eye opener to say the least. I had already read the book, so very little of the content was new to me, but there's something to be said for the power of visuals: Seeing Al Gore get on a lift to demonstrate just how far off the charts that measure CO2 emissions we will be in 50 years was flabbergasting. That chart that we'll be off of for the first time, by the way, measures CO2 emissions for the last 650,000 years and it has never been as high as it is right now.

Its not like personal responsibility is something that Superwife and I hadn't already owned. We recycle, we are careful with our energy and fuel consumption, we even tried to buy a hybrid car when we turned in the 2-person-mobile when Trin came along. That last one was a problem because The Prius, if you can find one for sale, is so damn expensive relative to the corresponding gas only options. But we got talking after the movie about what else we could do to help, because obviously what we are doing collectively as a species is nowhere near enough. And its hard knowing that so many other people, both individually and corporately, just don't care enough to make this a priority.

And when I look at my daughter I wonder what she will have to say to me when her world is a wasteland. Will she blame me? Will she be able to accept greed and apathy as adequate reasons for ruining our biosphere?

Here are some links that I'm finding equal parts helpful and terrifying :

'An Inconvenient Truth' official site on Climate Crisis

Stephen Hawking becomes a doomsday prophet

Global Warming will actually be worse than most scientists previously thought

At least someone in the Canadian Government admits to the inconvenient truth

And the obligatory Wikipedia entry covers everything from Kyoto to mitigation

And the other thing that happens when watching Gore's movie; one can't help but wonder what our world would be like if he had've won that election been allowed to govern for the term he was lawfully voted in for. Would he still be the paragon of environmental assistance that he is now so well known for? Would the average North American look at the Kyoto numbers and laugh because they didn't reduce emissions enough? Would America lead the world in the effort to save the planet rather than languish in dead last?

With most things, I guess those questions fall under the category of things we'll never know.

Labels: politics, rants