When Al Gore’s book “An Inconvenient Truth” made its rounds in 2006 it came to my mind that it was published to scare the wits out people as vengeance for his defeat as a Presidential candidate in 2000.
Back in 2000 when VP Gore was worrying about an elevation to being top dog, I was living in Wasaga Beach and had made friends with a well-informed climatologist. We talked about weather patterns often and as his work had demonstrated to him and he explained to me, the world was drifting into another ice-age but, “Not to worry Bob as it would take thousands of years before the Ottawa Valley would be iced over once again.”
That was the first time I had ever thought of current conditions being much different than they always were. Winters were cold and summers were hot and that was about it. Later I was living back in Westmeath when “An Inconvenient Truth” hit the book stores. Now I had a dilemma: would I believe that the planet was heating up or cooling down like the climatologist told me six years earlier. I couldn’t call the decision so I considered each person’s points of view, either the politician or my climatologist friend. We all know how much a politician’s word is worth and besides Mr. Gore was a ‘loser’. I naturally continued supporting the ice-age theory!
As the time went by, the response to the book by most readers faded like a vanishing star in the sky. Yes, there were many I met that thought the book had validity but that we in North America were not the problem, rather it was the other side of the earth causing the global warning. So people soon became complacent once more in regards to the planet’s destiny. It was simpler to ignore than worry about any significant changes that might be noticed years later.
It appears that for some years the vast majority of scientists had believed that changes were coming and faster than expected. However they would only provide snippets of information here and there. They feared the global population might panic so they unfortunately stalled and waited some more months and years, putting the world behind the eight-ball even further.
Finally they let it all out the bag; more heat waves were coming, glaciers melting, even Greenland was losing property. And wouldn’t you know it, the cleanest and most forgiving energy source of all time, nuclear energy, was not a growth industry but rather being phased out in parts of the world. The fallacy of nuclear being replaced by solar and windmills might as well be smoke and mirrors.
Global warming has now become such a hot issue which people in the ‘know’ now understand that the world is facing severe inconveniences that a few years ago they couldn’t have fathomed.
The Paris Climate Agreement states that every country in the world must adhere to a common goal of, “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels while pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to only 1.5°C.”
I still stand by my conviction that we would have been entering an ice-age except that all those greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hanging over the earth has thrown everything out of kilter.
However, I now accept that global warming is a serious threat to mankind – even if 100% of all pollution could be stopped instantly. I know too that we can’t change our ways quickly enough. Animals can adapt speedier than humans. So I ask, who is smarter?
I spoke with a local man, “what do you think of global warming?” He shot back, “it’s all bunk just to give the Government an excuse to increase taxes.” I said, “imagine for a moment that it was true.” He answered, “it’s so far off that I’ll be dead before it ever happens.” I had that naïve attitude once – not anymore.
I can appreciate how people are reluctant to switch modes by decreasing their carbon footprints, such as parking their gas-guzzling cars, wasting less water than accustomed too, getting by without disposable plastics and hundreds of other things, just to help save our planet and our children and grandchildren from calamity.
I too will be inconvenienced by necessary sacrifices but whether others do or not, I still will, even my very hot showers I look so forward to in the mornings.
