Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

And I, like Al Gore all of those years ago as he ran for Congress, believe that once people are told that within 45 years or less we could finally do our best by our own hand to thoroughly ruin this our only home that they will listen to me. They will become convinced that definitive action must be taken now and will want to become part of the solution. They will pledge to change their lives if for nothing else the world they wish to bring their children who deserve better than this. They will then run for their planet.

So yesterday, not being able to wait any longer for the copies of An Inconvenient Truth I ordered to arrive I went out (late after the rush) and bought one for myself and just finished watching it again while taking notes. It is so clear that we must begin to take action on our own to mitigate the effects of what we are doing to our relationship to this planet. The message is as simple as that.

The cover is clever and environmentally made from natural products and 100% post consumer recycled material wrapped in a thin plastic which was made from 100% compostable products. However, the material included on the DVD is anything but recycled or compost. It is a riveting wake up call for all of us regarding a crisis that should bring us to that point between danger and despair, and Al Gore weaves that so well in this DVD.

There was a special feature on the DVD where Mr. Gore talked about the changes in the last year since the movie was completed regarding soil moisture, temperatures, glacial earthquakes, permafrost, drought, ocean acidity, wildfires, and population.

I am especially interested in and concerned about what climate change is doing to our oceans, especially coral, which are called the rainforests of the ocean. 70 million tons of Co2 are spewed into our atmosphere daily, with 25 million tons being absorbed into our oceans. This makes the oceans more carbonic and changes the Ph levels, which affects the animals that thrive in making shells, and that affects the entire food chain. Seventy percent of our Earth is made up of oceans... I don't believe we should be fooling around with them in this fashion.

Another effect I am concerned about is glacial earthquakes. Mr. Gore reported in the special feature that 50 cubic miles of ice melted off Greenland in 2004, and that between 1999-2005, 32 glacial earthquakes were recorded. The average between 1993-1999 was only 7-15. That is believed to be occurring because of melting that is causing shifting ice, with water runnning down to the bedrock and making the ice unstable. I am most concerned should this melting continue at the pace it is going, because another doubling of quakes in the same time period or less could cause that break that would raise sea levels by 20 ft.

I am also very pleased he mentioned drought, because I believe it will become a much more serious problem regarding water scarcity in our world in relation to population growth/water pollution. He claimed he really did not see it on the level of a Lake Chad yet, but from what I saw regarding the Darling River in Australia and the effects of the severe drought in China, we are seeing the beginnings of it.

This is most definitely then a DVD to donate and share (and also a portion of every sale goes to the bipartisan Alliance For Climate Protection) as it's inside cover already makes it very easy to do with a to and from line to write on. So when the copies I ordered come in one goes to my local library and one either to the local high school or the University and I will try to get free showings of it somewhere in order to move people to action. This is what all of us who purchase this DVD this weekend need to do. Now that the movie is accessible to so many more people there is no excuse. It is now in our hands.

And if we do not reign in the amount of greenhouse gases we are spewing into the atmosphere daily, this Earth could be unrecognizable in as little as forty years or less. That may be in my lifetime if I am so fortunate, it would most definitely be in the lifetime of my child, and perhaps even his children. And that is not a message to be ignored or used chiefly by political operatives for their own political purposes. This is a MORAL campaign, and it is a WAKE UP CALL for those who refuse to see what we are all doing to our planet.

So in all the hub bub this weekend regarding finding that right gift for whoever, step away from the rush of the crowds and the commercialization of this holiday season and take a good look at your Earth. Does she not deserve a special gift this most spiritual time of the year to last through all of the years? She gives every day to all of us. I say, it is time we think of her this holiday season, for to do so is in essence giving a lasting gift to all of those we love and all of those to come of inestimable value.

An Inconvenient Truth on DVD- HIGHLY recommended.
Thank you, Al Gore.