You may not remember this TV miniseries, but I do. I started teaching in the 80's and I heard Al Gore talk about global warming. I have been discussing this in my science classes since the early 1980's. After I had my daughter in 1990, my grandmother was visiting during the summer and we watched this mini series. She was disgusted by all the doom and gloom and was adamant that I stop watching all that crap. The truth is that even though this series presented an America that may be 50-100 years away- a lot of what they were depicting has already happened.
I just watched a segment of the documentary show called Vice (HBO). They were interviewing people from Venice, Italy and the former President of the Maldives (Islands) in the Indian ocean. And news flash- they are all flooded and sinking. A friend of mine went to Italy last year and she was horrified by the emptiness in Venice. Now some folks might say- that is what you get for building a city in an area below sea level, but just think about all the people on this planet that live near the coast. All of this people- perhaps one billion will soon be affected by the rising oceans.
I wish that we had taken a proactive approach when global climate change was first introduced to the masses. We unfortunately are still fighting the doubters. We have wasted a lot of time and most importantly burned way too much fossil fuel. We have missed the opportunity to teach up and coming nations such as China how to switch to cleaner fuels. China has now surpassed the US in the amount of carbon emissions. They have over four times the population of the United States on about the same amount of land. We could have developed better and cleaner fuel technology in the 1970's during the oil embargo, but the oil started flowing soon after and the cost went down and we lost our need and passion for the environment.
I remember a scene from the fire next time where there was a huge hurricane hitting the gulf coast and people were being evacuated for good. What is it going to take to wake us all up?
Check out this week's installment of Vice on HBO. Watch the Day after Tomorrow some time. Think about how you can reduce your carbon footprint. Someday we may not be able to all have our own car. Someday there may be more than miniature golf and fun at the shore. Someday there may be difficulty obtaining fresh water.
Remember- "We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from out grandchildren"- Chief Settle
Last week our planet hit a Carbon dioxide level of 400 ppm. This is the highest level that carbon dioxide has been at since the inception of humanity. Now some people may think that this is 6000 years ago, but most scientists agree that humans have been on planet earth as Homo sapiens for 100,000 years. Think about that one!
