I have read an essay written by Michael Barone which was published by Real Clear Politics at http:// www.realclearpolics.com , that contradicts Al Gore’s documentary the Inconvenient Truth, which shows that the world is experiencing global warming due to carbon dioxide emissions up in the atmosphere.
Although Gore’s documentary may discourage Americans to spend their future vacations in Bali, Hawaii, Fiji ,the Mediterranean, or the exotic Christmas Island in the Pacific they should not panic since most of the governments in the world are implementing measures to mitigate global warming.
Even before the documentary was shown, several countries in the world were already hastening their reforestation program to preserve the environment and conserve water.
Many countries have total ban on logging and the use of CFC as refrigerants in household air conditioning units and industrial equipment.
Barone’s opinion that Gore was exaggerating could be partly true but Gore has convinced the world that now is the time to reduce carbon dioxide emission into the air.
I said that Gore’s alarum is partly true because not all his predictions were based on scientific history as Barone opined. For example Gore’s prediction that the sea level would rise as high as 20 feet could be an exaggeration, because according to Barone, experts predict only a rise of about 23 inches, not feet.
Even before the Inconvenient Truth was shown to the world the automotive industry, which is blamed for all the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, was already doing some research and development to reduce the use of fossil fuel in their cars to minimize pollution not necessarily to mitigate global warming.
Today we have prototypes of automobiles that run on a combination of solar energy, electrical energy, ethanol alcohol or those that use bio-fuels. Europe and other parts of the world are using electric cars, scooters, bikes and even electric wheelchairs for mobility in their inner cities, not for fear of global warming but to clean the air they are breathing.
The automotive industry calls these environment-friendly vehicles hybrid cars or whatever. They are trying to minimize pollution not because of the fear that global warming would inundate the earth but more of necessity. They know that fossil fuel would run dry in the future.
Gore’s presentation of fast melting ice caps, out of season hurricanes and cyclones, desertification, aquifers running out of water, floods and other catastrophes may be due to Earth’s cyclic behavior but not necessarily because of global warming caused by carbon dioxide emission.
Planting trees may contribute to cooling the Earth but this method is very minimal as studied by experts on the ecosystem.
Gore in the documentary was talking of an imminent danger. In fact Gore helped wrote the Kyoto Protocol or treaty for the countries to commit their resources in trying to reduce carbon dioxide and other harmful pollutants from the layers in the atmosphere. But past president Billy Clinton did not even bother himself to urge Congress to ratify the treaty. The Clinton administration was not pessimistic as Gore is.
I believe Gore wanted to be politically correct to improve his image to the American public. President Bush was re-elected because of his campaign against global terrorism. So, I believe, Gore uses the environment as his launching pad to return to the consciousness of the American voters and the American public in general so that he could be again the person to be looked up to with his advocacy on environmental protection to mitigate global warming.
This was cited by Barone in his article titled “Gore’s Faith Is Bad Science” when he reported that when the Earth’s temperatures dropped in the 1970s there were warnings of a possible return to an Ice Age. And when the temperatures started to rise in the 1990s the doomsayers said there could be a disastrous global warming.
This opinion could be the result of man being self-centered, Gore included. Gore made the disastrous prediction due to global warming because when he was born the Earth’s temperature was cooler. So he wanted that the temperatures should go down lower as he had experienced in his childhood days.
And this could only be possible if he could convince the world that they have to mitigate global warming—even at a staggering cost. Barone cited the observation of economist Robert Samuelson who said “that there is little that we can feasibly do in the short term to reduce carbon emission, though over the long term we may be able to develop substitutes for carbon fuels.”
In short we should not take the warning of Gore in its totality. Of course, the world would end since the Sun, the source of the Earth’s energy, is a star. And a star has to burst into oblivion. But scientists say this could only happen billion of years away. So why should Gore worry so much? Or why should we Americans worry so much about global warming? We should enjoy the beaches—and forget global warming.
