Global Warming

Up until tonight I had basically left the concept of global warming unchallenged. After all, who would make that stuff up? It's gotta be valid since there's no big business behind it. The oil companies are certainly not. Also from what I understand of the greenhouse effect, the whole concept seems to make sense. CO2 is one of many greenhouse gasses which keep our planet warm. Add C02, make the planet warmer.

Tonight I watched a movie that challenged these assumptions to the core, The Global Warming Swindle. First of all, we're all conditioned to believe CO2 is bad. Of course we'll acknowledge that we're made up of it; we expel it. Trees, plants, animals, and most of all, water expel it. But it still seems like a bad thing, cause it makes our planet warmer.

Or does it? The big studies show that historically CO2 levels and planet temperature are directly related. But what a movie like The Inconvenient Truth doesn't tell you is that the CO2 changes lag four to five hundred years behind the climate changes. It's the classic cause and effect logic mistake. The planet gets warmer, and then CO2 levels rise. Not the other way around. So what's causing what?

But still, it doesn't hurt to cut down on CO2 emissions right? Despite the scare in the post WWII era about the looming ice age (no joke!), I've always wondered what anti-environmentalists get so worked up about. Even if we're wrong, it doesn't hurt to play it safe and sell your f#$*ing SUV. Well, in some cases it might. Developing nations are being told they have to use alternative forms of energy. Their infrastructures are just beginning to develop, so it makes sense to start them off the right way.

Right? (one word paragraph)

Well, alternative energy is at least twice as expensive, which means that these countries are being significantly held back in their development because they're being forced to adopt alternative energy. And in case you're thinking this means they won't be able to upgrade from the 2 slice toaster to the 4 slice (I hate waiting for my 3rd slice), you're wrong. It means people are dying. The movie shows a hospital that has no electricity except for a couple of solar panels to power either their lights or their fridge, but not both. Development is crucial for the lives of people in these countries, and they are being dramatically held back by what appears to be bad science.

I'm not saying this info might not be skewed and twisted to make me doubt global warming. It's really hard to tell who to believe. Perhaps this movie was funded by Esso. To get into how global warming advocates are financially motivated, it's related to government spending and scientific grants. I'll let the movie get into the details of that. Watch it and comment.

It should be on your right, one of the top two. If not go here. The bottom one appears to be a movie that counters The Global Warming Swindle. I'm gonna watch that now.