image from National Post
Finally, something may exist that both environmentalists and George W. Bush can agree on: the ineffectiveness of fear mongering.
Because of the fake severity of their message, “doomsday” environmentalists who claim that the world will end in a few years if mankind doesn’t act quickly have turned many people off to caring about the world around them.
You don’t necessarily have to care about polar bears, how quickly Greenland is melting or how fast the ozone is depleting. But you should realize how your actions tie into environmental changes we see locally and globally.
Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh started the countdown on a doomsday clock after the release of An Inconvenient Truth because he claims that the documentary warned that global warming will kill us all in 10 years. I would tell you the time we have left to live on this earth, according to Limbaugh’s clock, but unfortunately I cannot access it on his Web site because I’m not a Rush 24/7 Member. Damn.
Do you care about the world around you? Well, let’s just say that you don’t.
And you don’t necessarily have to.
To live green, your motivations can be entirely selfish. You only need to care about yourself, your wallet and your species’ ultimate survival.
Although green living and the belief in global warming usually go hand in hand, you don’t have to get married to the idea. You don’t necessarily have to care about polar bears, how quickly Greenland is melting or how fast the ozone is depleting. But you should realize how your actions tie into environmental changes we see locally and globally.
Yes, you’re right. I will probably pimp Al Gore at the drop of an Arctic ice sheet because I think he has done a wonderful job of bringing visibility to a previously downplayed issue.
However, this is a problem that transcends political boundaries, and I want to bring as many viewpoints to the table as possible.
What many people have a problem with is the confusing wording used by the scientific community when describing the problem.
Isn’t global warming only a theory?
Exactly.
In science, everything is theoretical, and nothing can ever be completely proved or disproved. A mere hypothesis can only move into the upper echelons of being a theory after numerous tests, experiments and other hypotheses have failed to falsify the evidence.
Check out any 100-level chemistry or biology course.
Everyone seems to be content with many other theories that we deal with daily, such as the theory of gravity. Maybe when Americans can see climate change in their everyday lives will we finally commit to living a greener lifestyle.
Even if you still think that global warming is caused by a bunch of liberals blowing hot air, that’s fine.
Whatever your political viewpoints, your background, your socio-economic standing or your Facebook status, you can all be green with me.
— originally published in Jayplay magazine on Jan. 24, 2008 (PDF). Click here for its original online home.
Lauren Keith, Journalist 
