Let’s just get to work

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

It’d be just like me to offer a somewhat contrarian view of global warming. So here you go: I don’t care if global warming is caused by man. I don’t care to argue if the world climate is changing in unprecedented ways. I’ve been told by enough people whom I absolutely distrust that global warming doesn’t exist that I’m sure it does. But global warming is one symptom of the real disease, and it’s just one aspect to the way we humans have abdicated our responsibility as stewards of the planet Earth.

Fossil fuels, as we overuse them now, suck. Carbon dioxide causes greenhouse warming, but that’s just one reason to hate petroleum and coal. The shit causes political and ecological instability. The instant our technology moves beyond oil and coal, the world will be a more peaceful place. And then those countries that now manipulate the fuel market can decide if they want to participate in a civilized world community. I guess that includes us.

Fossil fuel-based materials are damned near indestructible. Plastic—everything from beer rings to computer parts to soda bottles—messes up the visual and actual landscape. It kills from the top to the bottom of the food chain. (I wonder how many little kids have choked to death on those irritating plastic labels on fruit.)

Have you ever tried to grow anything on soil that’s been polluted with petro-chemicals? The stuff is deadly for years. Even when experts try to clean it up, it lingers in the air, in the soil, in the water. And then, by nose or mouth or skin, we consume it.

And if Peak Oil won’t spell the end of civilization and solve global warming issues, I don’t know what will.

So go ahead, you global warming warriors. Carry on, you sustainable scientists. I know we all want the same thing: A healthy planet for us and our children.

I don’t care because the arguments and blame don’t matter. The answers are the only things that matter.