helwen

Personally, I try not to get too involved in heavy discussions on global warming and peak oil because there's so much information out there and you have to test and question all of it in order to try to discern what may be the truth of the matter. I check out places like Energybulletin.net, Oil Drum, MSNBC, Union of Concerned Scientists (they're great), and many, many others, but we are talking about trying to figure out things that are happening on a very large scale over a long period of time. That's a lot to wrap one's mind around. I have my own thoughts on what may or may not happen, and am changing things in my life accordingly. I support various bills, sign petitions, try to live a cleaner life, etc., but each person must determine the right path for him/herself.

I try to keep up on this stuff because among other things it affects one of the farm's crops -- sugar maples -- both the weather and what we use for fuel to make the syrup. But in the final analysis, I don't really care whether or not we have global warming or how much oil prices are or aren't going to spike.

I do care about polluting the environment. I care about whether or not the food and water I and other people have is fit for consumption. I care about whether or not the air is fit to breathe. I care about killing, poisoning and/or mutating fish and other creatures by dumping chemicals into the water sources. I care about how many meds I and other people need to take because of the poisoning of our environment. I care about the lack of respect shown to our planet and all of its residents, and the lack of foresight and stewardship on the part of many people, including of course many corporations.

I care about not wasting resources, because whether we have 200 years of oil left or 300+ years of oil left, it's still a finite resource and we have nothing that equals it for effectiveness and cost (if it costs more to produce than to use, it's a net loss. Oil and gas are amazingly powerful fuels).

Do I still eat foods that aren't the healthiest? Of course. But I'm trying to limit it as much as I can, and am improving as time goes on. Do I waste resources? Of course! I live in a city, after all, and I do love being able to get things on the internet, my CDs of marvelous music, etc. But I am trying to be more mindful of what I order and how I do it (bulk orders = fewer trips = saved fuel).

Do I think that massive changes in what people use for energy, how much they use, how much is recycled, not cutting down rain forests, etc. will stop global warming? Haven't a clue. And it certainly won't save us from running out of oil eventually. But it would give us more time to work on propagating other forms of energy. And we'll have cleaner air, water, and food, which means being healthier, and treating ourselves and our environment with respect.

In an argument over who's right and who's wrong about a situation, who suffers? What's more important, being right or solving the problem? In the case of arguing about global warming and peak oil, the longer people argue rather than simply doing what's right, we all suffer.