Is Al Gore the Lorax?

I thought that I would take a break from my regular train of thought to start a few arguments. Ever since Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for environmental work I have been thinking about weather or not the Lorax was a liberal or conservative, right or wrong. What? Who is the Lorax? Why, he speaks for the trees! He is the famous Dr. Seuss character who tries to save the earth from consuming itself, especially to save the delicate but much sought after Truffula Trees.

I had put this topic on the shelf, but could no longer leave it there in light of the present debate concerning global warming. There are few areas where I really know what I am talking about, but I have a bit of an edge here. I have a firm foundation of math, Physics, Geology, Star Trek, Mr. Wizard and sometimes successful attempts to launch various household objects into neighborhood sub-orbit using homemade pyrotechnics.

Anyway, here are a few simple facts:

• The earth is heating up. Is it because of pollution or a natural cycle? I don’t know.
• The trees are the “lungs of the earth”. They breath in what we and our industrial complex exhale, and they in-turn are generous enough to give us a little air to breath.
• We are resecting the lungs of the earth by deforestation while increasing the amount of CO2 that we add to the ecosystem. Simple math comes into play here: More CO2 than can be absorbed > atmosphere heats up due to increased greenhouse gasses > the climate shifts, etc. etc.
• The polar icecaps are melting, and coastlines are receding.
  

Here are a few more personal facts. My wife and oldest daughter have asthma so pollution-based ozone really aggravates their health. We can no longer swim in rivers where we could as kids back in North Carolina.

Our friends on Topsail Island, NC showed us the beach where numerous hurricanes had hit. I remarked that there were some signs of erosion, but the houses seemed to have faired rather well. My friends then remarked that the beach used to be 100 yards further out and there were several roads and the footprints of former neighborhoods just under the breaking surf. While the erosion was not linked to global warming any rise in sea level will swamp these beautiful barrier islands.

What is the point of all my liberal ranting then? I have no political agenda. I am not a democrat. I am not a tree hugger. I did not vote for Al Gore, and I especially do not believe that he invented the Internet. I just want clean air to breath for my family. Is the earth heating up? Don’t know for sure. What I do know is that it stinks more than it used to.

Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. Gen 2:15

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