[MD] An Inconvenient Truth

[Case]

If it is in a theater near you and you have the chance I highly recommend
"An Inconvenient Truth" 

Just a couple of points before the right wing steps in: A study of more than
600 articles in the popular press indicated that 56% suggested that there
was controversy over the matter of global warming. A similar study of more
than 900 scholarly articles in peer review journals indicated that 0%
thought there was any controversy. So much for the "liberal media."

Another point made, relative to a recent MoQ discussion, is that the earth's
biosphere is a nonlinear system. That is, there are several stable states
the planet can take. Gore shows a graph based on estimates of the carbon
dioxide levels in the earth's atmosphere over the past 600,000 years! The
estimates are based on air trapped in the ice of glaciers. CO2 levels in the
atmosphere today are about twice as high as they have ever been! That is
EVER in 600,000 years. That span includes five ice ages. This is exactly the
kind of change that can alter the present steady state of our climate.
Whatever new static state is in our future it is unlikely to be as favorable
to our species as the current one.

Platt recently stated something to the effect that biological evolution has
all but stopped for our species. Well if we don't do something that pace is
likely to pick up.

Knowing full well what kind of crap this statement could bring down on me I
have say I was moved to tears several times during this movie. The last
movie I can recall that had that kind of impact on me was Apollo 13.

At some point during Apollo 13 I realized that at one point in my life time
we as a people had had the will, the skill, and the confidence to live an
impossible dream. When things went sour we used slide rules, duct tape and
team work to make thing work.

What saddened me more than I can say is that we threw it all away for junk
bonds, empty promises of prosperity, and the disingenuous claims of a
President who told us that "Government is the problem." Our citizens now
accept as a given that our leaders are liars and thieves.  We believe that
money is the measure of all Value. We think it is normal to live in fear of
our next door neighbors at home and our fellow human beings abroad. When I
was a boy it would have been unthinkable for Americans to trade liberty for
security. We have come a long way over the past 30 years unfortunately it
seems the distance traveled was in the wrong direction.

Case