Now it's here I might quote Winston Churchill by saying: "This is NOT the end...nor the beginning...it is, however, the end of the beginning". OK, so we're not fighting the Battle of Britain all over again, but we do have enough "war" to go around. We're waging war on terrorism...war on big oil prices, war on higher taxes, war on drugs, war on gang violence...seems we're at war at something or someone...somewhere.
Now we're at "war" with our weather. Perhaps the earth IS actually warming all by itself, without our intervention. This might be due to some cyclic occurrence in our sun that we're still trying to fathom. Maybe the sun is going through some sort of cosmic PMS? It could be our very own greenhouse gases, but didn't the earth suffer from that a few BILLION years ago before it cooled down, allowing life to flourish? And didn't good old Mother Earth solve her dilemma pretty damn well back then?
Personally, I'm OK with the way our earth is doing. Sure, WE, as stewards OF the earth could be doing a helluva lot better with our particular "management style", but the best way to learn is to make a few mistakes here and there. And the human race EXCELS at doing that. Yet, like I said...we ARE learning (hopefully) from it.
Today is our FIRST "Ozone Action Day" here in Fort Wayne (time for some fireworks and another cookout?) which means that people (young or old) with existing bronchial conditions shouldn't be outside all that long, and that extended strenuous activity is not advised. Wouldn't that be more like an "Ozone INACTION Day"? Everyone just sit around. Don't fill your gas tank (at these prices, WHO the hell CAN?), and don't mow your lawn (I have an electric mower...no greenhouse gases from me...unless I eat some chili and have a brewski...LOL).
Now I understand WHAT ozone is...what I'll probably NEVER figure out is why we have "bad" ozone and "good" ozone. To me ozone IS ozone. It's O3...that's THREE oxygen atoms, so it should be better breathing, right?
Wrong.
But don't take MY word for it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone
Ozone is in our atmosphere to block harmful rays from the sun.
Alrighty then.
Yet ozone (apparently) at lower levels exacerbates lung ailments.
OK..got that.
Ozone is produced during thunderstorms (that sweet smell from all those ions) when electricity charges the air. Hell, you can make ozone when you produce a static charge touching a doorknob after shuffling your feet across the rug. It's both good AND bad for us? Now my brain is starting to hurt.
Maybe it's better to concern ourselves with something we have absolutely NO control over...'ya think?
What I worry about is a CME (coronal mass expulsion) from our sun or perhaps a GAMMA RAY BURST from some neutron star with a honking huge magnetic field. A severe enough CME will (after about 16 hours of travel from the sun..not much heads up there) have sufficient energy to disrupt ALL of our marvelous electronic contrivances...no cell phones, no radio, no cable TV, and in the worst case scenario...no power. Now THAT is something with meat on it's bones (to worry about).
Can you imagine the utter CHAOS that would erupt from something of that magnitude? Many researchers don't "really" know what all can be affected, as we've never been privy to such an event...yet.
On the other hand, a GAMMA RAY BURST (when it strikes the earth) will irradiate all living things, rendering the earth lifeless in a short period of time (because we all know gamma rays cannot be blocked by anything at any time). So if the earth can't "get outta the way", we're toast...plain and simple.
And then, there's always the possibility of some rogue chunk o' rock smacking us in the kisser, sending us all back to another age of extinction.
So maybe a little global warming isn't such as bad a thing after all.
We could be doing a LOT worse.
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