Germaniac

Yeah I watched it - very good, if a little stretched in some places... and I think you mean 'ratify'


For the last couple of months (until two weeks ago) I worked for a fundraising company where I campaigned for, amongst others, the Australian Conservation Foundation, who (obviously amongst other environmental issues) is fighting strongly the global warming front. The more you learn about global warming the more scary it becomes - all other environmental, social, ethical, economic, moral or world problems pale into insignificance when you consider the quite real possibility of polar ice caps melting, whole ecosystems getting wiped out, and the rest.... it's HUGE!! Things like..... millions of people without food, reefs (such as the Great Barrier Reef) completely destroyed (due to bleaching, rising water temperatures), crops failing, droughts occurring more regularly, cyclings occurring more regularly, rainfall decreasing, whole animal and plant species becoming extinct... the thing is it's not dooms day-ists or enviro-freaks saying these things, it's a large majority of the scientific community.

In fact I think one of the strongest points Al Gore made, not sure if it's entirely true or not, but basically they took samples of something like 1000 scientific journals on the subject, and samples of 1000 of the population, and it was crazy: 100% of scientists said that mankind was directly contributing to the effects of global warming, while the population was (if I remember) evenly split on the issue - most were unsure - Gore saying this was a product of the PR instrument of doubt.

There is an absolutely fantastic interview of Al Gore on the Andrew Denton show Enough Rope I recommend to all interested -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH854eTGYLY
(it's in four parts, that's part one)

I love where he says that people go from denial to despair without stopping in the middle to figure that we may actually be able to do something about it - and that the common elements of both denial and despair is that they both justify inaction... but I think scientists also agree that with steps like the Kyoto Protocol man's input into global warming can be reversed... I know it's rather inspirational and sappy but one of the lines I heard once from another campaigner when replying to someone who said "but there's nothing we can do, people and governments will never change!!!" was that "people said that about slavery, about Apartheid, about plastic bags, but look at what's happened!!" (regarding plastic bags, quite amazingly in recent years in Australia there's been a big clean-up act on the part of the major supermarkets and many retailers to move away from the use of disposable plastic bags, replacing them with reuseable, more sturdy ones... it's enjoyed great success) -- I think it's scary, but I think something can, and is, and will, be done. Just recently there was a newspaper article suggesting the Howard government (traditionally very pro-industry, anti-Kyoto) is shifting towards a more environmental stance - good signs.