Some Minor Relief from Global Warming Possible

I truly believe the public has the right and even responsibility to be informed. Sometimes you wonder though how people will react to a piece of information. Will they use the information correctly or use it as an excuse to put off action? Robin McKie, the science editor of The Guardian, has a story on possible short term relief from Global Warming:

The earth could be rescued from global warming by an unlikely saviour: not fewer cars, nor less pollution, nor even thousands of wind farms spread across Britain's hillsides - but, remarkably, by a cooler Sun. An international group of scientists believes a period of reduced solar activity could soon bring desperately needed cooling to our sweltering world.

The work is based on research of past periods of climatic change, including the Little Ice Age in the 1700s when Europe shivered, the Thames froze over, and harvests failed. At the same time, solar activity dropped and sunspots disappeared from the face of the Sun.

Now leading scientists are predicting that we may soon enter such a period again - although they stress such cooling would only bring temporary relief to our overheated world. In the end, the Earth will still be swamped by huge rises in global temperatures, triggered by human activities, that will affect the planet over the next few decades.

The scientists stress that if there is some relief in temperatures, it will be slight and of course Global Warming may wipe out any cooling trend that occurs. If the slight cooling happens, will we be wise enough to do what's needed to combat Global Warming, or will we use any possible cooling as an excuse to do little?

Knowing that it's getting harder and harder to find oil, does it make any sense to burn oil as fast as we can which will bring on Global Warming all that much faster while making it worse, or does it make sense to start looking for a solution to Global Warming that also gives us long term relief from high energy prices and the risk of damaging the world economy when oil production eventually begins dropping?

We've known for 25-35 years that our worldwide oil resources are limited but we've done only a fraction of what we need to do in terms of switching to alternative energy, improving our efficiency and learning to do with less energy. Less energy, by the way, doesn't mean being poorer; it means turning off the lights when we're not in the room, it means being aware of how we use energy, it means spending a few extra bucks to buy things that last twenty years instead of ten, and it means making the extra effort to recycle. In the end, it may simply mean being a smarter human being.

I happen to believe capitalism is the best model for our country but I don't like a form of capitalism that's always trying to take shortcuts at the expense of workers, consumers and the community at large. I have no patience for companies who pollute to make a few extra bucks while leaving others to clean up their mess at considerable cost.

So there are times when I believe the government has to bring the business community to its senses. We are entering a time when that's needed. I can remember a time when most large companies thought ten, twenty, even thirty years down the road. We're lucky when the average company can think more than 2-5 years down the road which seems to be the average these days. I'll give the oil companies a little credit. They do think 5 to 10 years down the road because that's how long it sometimes takes to bring their projects to market. But that may not be long enough anymore.

Something to think about.