I would take the fail safe option, namely, that we are in danger of destroying the climate on Earth, and that we must take bold and radical action to prevent it.  If Al Gore is exaggerating the global climate change calamity, we will see the current climate trends to normal in a few years, no problem.  But if he is right, we will have wasted a few very important years, years that could be crucial to our survival, while we continued to digress into our vulgar video entertainment and our narcissist materialism.

How could his have happened to us, if we are so technologically advanced?  How could the cacophony of modern political discourse be so fragmented as to ignore such a dire warning from our best scientists and political leaders?  Al Gore's speech, important it was, will not be more than a flash of light in the video fireworks of the day, but it will be  recorded for posterity, for all of our children to see, willing.

Some day our posterity may wonder what kind of people would ignore what is an obvious fact?  The climate of our Planet is changing, it is getting warmer, colder, harsher, faster, longer, it has become chaotic!  Our climatic models are useless, they were written by meteorologists who did not have to deal with the dynamics of green house gases and pollution. Our political system is broken, fragmented into video sound bytes controlled by powerful business interests, our Universities have become business career mills promising advancement in exchange for lucrative student loans, our leaders are pulling us into military conflicts using lies and deception, for the sake of dominance over oil reserves. 

How can we expect to solve these problems if we can not even listen as a People?  How can we raise the political will needed to take on this and other urgent ecological and social problems, if we as Human Beings have no direct access to the decision making process, if we have to rely of passing e-mails and messages to those who are supposed to represent us, but who in fact represent the power of money?

Al Gore rightly stated in his Nobel acceptance speech today  that the problem we as Human  beings face is essentially a political problem.  We lack the political will to make the sacrifices necessary to control the effects of global climate change, before it becomes a problem that has no human solution.  Nature has a problem, we caused it, we must try to solve it, or Nature will solve if for us.

We need to find a way to have the people act on this problem in a social context, not only as individuals caring for their own "carbon footprint".  While it may be true that individual measures do help in remedying the effects of climate change, we can not solve this Global problem with individual solutions.  We must find a way for the People to know the problem, to understand it's full implications, and to take action in a Global context to prevent any further damage.

It is my belief that our Creator has given us the means to solve this problem, if we are willing to change our reckless consumption of "things" requiring massive amounts of fossil fuels to produce, transport and dispose of.   We need to return to a harmonious way of life, one which regards Nature as our home, not as a "thing" to be conquered for the sake of money.  We need to find ways to reduce our energy needs and our consumption of fabricated trinkets. 

We do not need whimsical gadgets and ostentatious vehicles, we need technology that is sustainable and harmonious with the environment.  We have lost our ecological balance due to our individualistic drive to success in a material world.  We have lost our very sense of what life is about, and have become slaves of our own technology.   It is not by  money that we will solve this problem, but by changing the system of "things" that has brought about this potential catastrophe.  May help us in this vital endeavor.

Atlanta, GA
Dec 10, 2007