All Things Considered...

As the sole editor and writer (and most likely reader) of this blog, once in a while I take the liberty to preach.

Every professional job I have held has required a decent amount of windshield time...which I love. So needless to say, if I'm not using the BlackBerry while driving, I'm messing with the MP3 player looking for another song or I'm searching the radio dial.

Over the years I have become a big fan of National Public Radio's show "All Things Considered". It is news radio that makes you feel smarter for having listened. Yesterday they were reporting on something that was right up my tree-hugging alley.

Prime Minister Blair said the scientific data is overwhelming - the world is getting warmer and greenhouse gas emissions are largely to blame and that if the trend goes unchecked the consequences could prove disastrous.

"This disaster is not set to happen in some science fiction future many years ahead, but in our lifetime," reminded Mr. Blair. "Unless we act now, not some time distant, but now, these consequences, disastrous as they are, will be irreversible."

Most climate change is driven by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, which puts carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A report that Blair's office released yesterday says that analysis finds that to avert potential disaster, greenhouse gas emissions will need to be reduced by a staggering 80 percent.

China and the good ole USA are the main burners of these fossil fuels, most of it for transportation, electricity and heating needs. In fact, each day China brings another large-scale gas fired electric generation plant on line...EACH DAY! That is insane!

Some smart Brit named Sir Nicholas Stern, who is the primary author of the 700-page report issued by the British government, says it makes economic sense to get started now. He says the first step is to convince governments around the world, including the reluctant United States, that they should share a sense of urgency about global warming.

Why is the USA reluctant, because we are cowboys that's why, we can't handle when some tea sipping Brit tells us the polar ice caps are melting because we are set on driving a H2 sixty miles to work each day by our self.

The first time world leaders got together to discuss global warming during the current era of Global Warming awareness the USA decided it was not in our best interest to be a signed partner in the Kyoto Protocol. Next week's Kyoto conference in Nairobi, Kenya, will give President Bush a chance to join our cohort Tony Blair and all other industrialized countries in support of the Kyoto Protocol.

WHAT IS THE KYOTO PROTOCOL?

- It is a pact agreed by governments at a 1997 U.N. conference in Kyoto, Japan, to reduce greenhouse gases emitted by developed countries to at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. A total of 165 nations have ratified the pact.

Can we reduce that much greenhouse gas?

The question isn't can we...it's will we? In my opinion no, we have EAZY access to a plethora of coal, and natural gas, so why should we care? My boys will be dealing with the problems their father's generation placed on the earth with our big cars and get rich quick throw away society.

I believe global warming will affect all of Generation X in some very major way...on a negative scope. What the Dirty '30s and WWII was to our Grandfather era (The Greatest Generation), what the Nuclear Era/Cold War was to our Father's era...Golbal Warming will be our biggest hurdle to crest before passing the torch on to the next era of leaders. Who, by the way, are right now listening to Kanye West on an I-pod worrying about not getting shot on the way home from school or in school.

Should they be worried about it, NO.

I didn't worry about Russia blowing up the USA when I was in 6th grade and my sons shouldn't worry about freak weather patterns and a vanishing O-zone. My father's generation shouldn't be worried either, they did their work, it's time for GenX to step up, and start living a bit smarter, slower and greener.

As much as I hate to say it, cause I think he is a complete puppet...but Gore is on the right track with his push for Green Sanctions and Taxes on businesses in America that emit large quantities of greenhouse gases.

By the way, as I write this...so you know...I am on the payroll of a company who uses fossil fuels to create energy, but also is a company committed and striving to find alternative ways to create that energy. I am proud to be a part of that, and a part of the future energy BLOWING all around us.

I just hope I can do what my dad always taught me..."When you borrow something, give it back better than how you got it." Well, I am borrowing the earth from my boys for about 45 more years, (by my plans) and I hope they remember their father as one who loved Creation enough to care for it now.