In-conveniently right
I was irritated last week when I heard that Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize. Al Gore does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Peace Prize is for fostering world peace. Not for harping on global warming. PEACE. Solving war. Mediating conflict. Addressing international tragedies in a way that one country's people selflessly help another. PEACE. The Nobel Peace Prize, of all things, has succumed to popular political maneuverings.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am a Christian, and I believe that God is a "green" God. He expects us to be good stewards of the environment, He expects us to recycle, to limit waste, to (unfortunately for my conscience due to my ridiculous commutes) not drive all over creation creating harmful exhaust and taking up bajillions of natural resources in the name of independence and prosperity. And entitlement. Let us not forget entitlement, which we here in the US have in spades. Al Gore, you go and tell people about global warming, I have no real objection. But try not to get in the way of the real work that needs to be done, ok?
Scott and I got into this big argument a couple of years ago when I told him that I wouldn't watch "An Inconvenient Truth." He asked me why I wasn't concerned about global warming. I told him it was because I was less concerned about the state of the world in 200 years because it's 10 degrees warmer than I am about the problems that are plaguing it right now. AIDS, rampant poverty, infested drinking water, homeless people, war-torn nations, human trafficking, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, substance abuse. WHAT? WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH PROBLEMS? YOU WANT TO DIVERT BAJILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO SAVING THE POLAR BEARS? TRY SAVING YOUR OWN PEOPLE!!! That was the gist of my argument then, and is still the gist of my argument now. (I do like polar bears, just fyi. But I like people more.)
Al Gore for president? Hardly. I want my tax money spent on the people I see on the street right now. The people who have NEEDS. Jesus could come back tomorrow. He's not going to ask if we recycled. He's going to ask if we took care of the widows and the orphans.
But here I am, just wee little me, with a wee little opinion (and an unfortunately large mouth). And then, yesterday, Ta-DA! I open up my Newsweek, and some very smart people say that I am very right. Read George F. Will's column found here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/43352 . Notice in particular the last paragraph and a half:
"There also are high costs of what Lomborg calls "impossibly ambitious and yet environmentally inconsequential" plans for inventing a "big knob of climate change" that we can give a twist or two, thereby making the climate "better" and making nothing worse.
Sums that are small relative to the cost of trying to fine-tune the planet's climate could prevent scores of millions of deaths from AIDS, unsafe drinking water and other clear and present dangers. If nations concert to impose antiwarming measures commensurate with the hyperbole about the danger, the damage to global economic growth could cause in this century more preventable death and suffering than was caused in the last century by Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot combined. Nobel Peace Prize, indeed. " (emphasis mine)
Hm. So I'm not dumb. I am a forward-thinker, even, as I (unscientifically and completely based on my own convictions) argued this same point two whole years ago. If we're hell-bent on giving the Nobel Peace Prize to an American, why not give it to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation? They have approximately 33 billion (yep, billion) charitable dollars to spend, and they are just going to town. For global health: the approximately US$800 million that the foundation gives every year for global health approaches the annual budget of the United Nations' World Health Organization (192 nations). For the global economy: agriculture resources, microfinance, and water, sanitation, and hygiene initiatives, among others. This foundation takes some of the excess monies we have here in the US and uses them for good in developing nations all over the world. Eradicating the idea that all Americans are selfish and arrogant, mediating crises of health and poverty. Promoting PEACE. Astonishing what one little word can mean.
posted by Tracy Lee V @ 3:47 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I get what you are saying. and you are right that there are plenty of other problems to focus on. But it isn't quite that simple. If climate change continues unabated, that 10 degrees warming of global temperature will put the shorelines of many major metropolitan areas under water, cause problems with drought and famine as well as the water supply. Not to mention hurricanes and typhoons. All of this is already starting to happen. So I would say being concerned with this issue may help prevent widows and orphans in the future, among other things.
To address one of those comments: US Hurricane Statistics, found here: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdec.shtml, show that hurricanes in the US have actually declined dramatically from the numbers in the 1800's.
And Wikipedia has these things to say about sea level changes (in some agreement with you, Curtis, and some disagreement):
Future sea level rise, like the recent rise, is not expected to be globally uniform (details below). Some regions show a sea-level rise substantially more than the global average (in many cases of more than twice the average), and others a sea level fall.[14] However, models disagree as to the likely pattern of sea level change.[15]...
Based on the projected increases stated above, the IPCC TAR WG II report notes that current and future climate change would be expected to have a number of impacts, particularly on coastal systems.[32] Such impacts may include increased coastal erosion, higher storm-surge flooding, inhibition of primary production processes, more extensive coastal inundation, changes in surface water quality and groundwater characteristics, increased loss of property and coastal habitats, increased flood risk and potential loss of life, loss of nonmonetary cultural resources and values, impacts on agriculture and aquaculture through decline in soil and water quality, and loss of tourism, recreation, and transportation functions.
There is an implication that many of these impacts will be detrimental. The report does, however, note that owing to the great diversity of coastal environments; regional and local differences in projected relative sea level and climate changes; and differences in the resilience and adaptive capacity of ecosystems, sectors, and countries, the impacts will be highly variable in time and space and will not necessarily be negative in all situations.
Lesson for today: move away from the coasts or plan ahead...
Yes, familiar with the hurricane statistics, but what that doesn't address is the strength and fury of hurricanes is increasing. More level 5 hurricanes than in a long time. But also more people in coastal areas , so the impact is greater. I'm sure there were times in the past when hurricanes went through a more violent period as well, but there weren't as many cities/people along the coasts. There are now though, so the impact is greater.
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