Accept it. We did it – Climate Change

[The graph above shows the increases of CO2 in our atmosphere since the industrial revolution]

The Queensland Premier (Campbell Newman) and some National Party leader (Warren Truss) are climate change deniers. Despite the federal government’s Climate Commission acknowledgement that climate change is responsible for the very hot weather we’ve been having lately, these two are from the “well it’s open to debate” argument.

Climate change talk is not convenient Mr Newman. It’s necessary.

The evidence is here.

Nasa – Climate Change website 

Even if you don’t understand graphs, green house gasses and how ice cores are tested, it’s pretty easy to see that climate is changing at a rapid rate when you see glaciers floating off the coast of New Zealand. Sure, we know of a time before Antarctica existed and if memory serves me right that was back in the late cretaceous era when it was the only place on earth that had seasons. I’ll probably be dead before the impact of climate change are felt, or be too old to care, but you and I will have children and grandchildren who will inherit a pretty screwed up world.

I was watching morning TV last week and a viewer emailed in a rant about how Channel 7 was biased because they did not have an anti-climate change skeptic on the show to challenge the scientists. Um….it’s kind of like asking them why they don’t have a colour-denier to challenge someone who is pointing out that mint leaves are green.

Scientists are already in agreement that it’s happening and the only thing we can do is to limit the impact.

Yet still we sit like frogs in a frying pan.

What can I do?

Sometimes it’s easy to feel disheartened and overwhelmed by everything that’s happening, and that the only thing you can do is pray for a heaven that has a stable temperature of 25 degrees.

I don’t know. I suppose the answer is to lobby the government and do what we can as individuals. For starters, I’m going to limit my carbon footprint. I am as guilty as anyone else of destroying the earth and selling out. I felt guilty but I got sucked into things like buying plastic crap I don’t need, wrapping paper that is a complete waste of money and kills rainforests. I drive a hybrid, but what happened to my old car?

I have opted to go 100% green energy and by bills are lower than my coal consuming friends. I live close enough to a power plant to see the smog that’s pumped into the air. I know I can do more and I will do more.

As the old Cree saying goes “When the last tree is cut, the last river poisoned, and the last fish dead, we will discover that we can’t eat money”

It’s science stoopid…

(Left: Delta Goodrem Right: Current Broadway cast of Annie. Bald guy is long term lymphoma survivor Anthony Warlow)

Delta Goodrem nearly died 10 years ago.

She’s still alive because she underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. There are so many people who are alive today, who would have died had they refused treatment for cancer. This includes the countless number of people living in your suburb who don’t talk about it and celebrities who do. (Just off the top of my head, I can name: Kylie Minogue, Anthony Warlow, Simon O’Donnell, that guy from Dexter, Ethan Zohn, the wicket keeper for Australia, some young guy who played in the World Cup).

When I went out for lunch today, I got talking to a guy about cancer therapies.  He said that he didn’t believe in chemotherapy but he did the power of positive thinking.   When asked what he would do if it were him, he explained that in his culture (Chinese) it was about the survival of the fittest.  I assumed he was a religious fundamentalist who had grown up without a science education, but it turns out he had an atheist upbringing in communist China.

 

I know for a fact that there are clinical trials coming out of China faster than any other country because of the sheer population of those undergoing treatment (and surviving). If you have read the book “The Emperor of Maladies”, you’ll realize a lot of the scientists at the forefront of research are “culturally” and ethnically Chinese. I have a Chinese friend who had cancer and when given the chance to live, she took the chemo and radiation and she’s still alive!

I can see how people can have two different opinions when it comes to wasabi. Some will take it, some won’t. But when it comes to proven life saving medical therapy, how can a take-away owner who has had no experience of cancer believe that his views are as valid as a scientist whose findings have been proven?

Sadly all too many people have a deep mistrust of science and would rather pay thousands for a bit of vitamin C therapy. I understand why people resort to alternative treatments once they’ve run out of mainstream cures, but I also believe that the people who sell hope are criminals. I know people who have wiped out their life savings, because money means nothing when you are dying, for the miracle and often painful “cure”.

Who is to blame for this deep mistrust people have of science and medicine? Makers of period dramas set in 19th Century England? Personal experience? The rise of new age nut jobs? Lack of critical thinking in our school curriculum?

I am disturbed by the number of people who think it is okay to be a skeptic about scientific facts. Science is not a belief system. It just is.