I am not going to waste space on the Anthropogenic Climate Change/Global Warming argument as you can read about it elsewhere. I am going to tell you that it is a classic magician’s trick, look at my right hand so you don’t see what my left hand is doing. You don’t think BASF, Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil, Shell, LyondellBasell, INEOS, SABIC, Sinopec, Mitsubishi Chemical, and Dupont (the top ten chemical companies in 2007) don’t want you to spend your time thinking about carbon emissions instead of 100s of millions of tons of chemicals they are pushing into all of us? Yeah, stay busy arguing over something that is deeply debatable and divisive instead of focusing on the dead zones in the oceans from fertilizer runoff, food safety testing, untested chemicals in our everyday items, dumping of waste, poisoning of our lakes, and general poisoning of everything. So while they are keeping you busy arguing over something with potential long-term consequences, thus keeping the politicians focus there too, they just keep going unchecked. Nice.
When did you last hear about acid rain, the ozone layer, mercury emissions poisoning, nanotechnology safety, perchlorate invasion of all water, and all of the different things that affect our health directly and indirectly on a daily and short-term basis? You aren’t because of that big, fat, juicy, red herring we keep getting served. Infant formula, mother’s breast milk, baby bottles, fire-retardant chemicals, computer cases, televisions, beauty products, and on and on all have potential health impacts because of the poisons we so cavalierly toss around. I am far more concerned about these health effects today. It doesn’t matter what the world will look like in 100 years if we all have cancer and other health problems because we are too focused on one issue.
Don’t get me wrong chemicals absolutely have a place in our world, but need to have proper testing and regulation for safety. However, we CAN reduce/eliminate the pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers we use in our lives. We can buyproducts produced without poisons, particularly organic food , stop focusing exclusively if it is healthier but look at what those farming techniques do for us. Start making small changes in your life and start making a stink with politicians, news media, friends, and family to focus on the poisoning of ourselves, our children, our world.
EDIT 1: Al Gore’s actions support my theory. Gore leaves car idling for one hour during speech; Opts for Swedish government jet over public transportation.