Human Responsibility

There is hardly any more important or urgent issue before mankind than aggressively reversing our carbon-polluting tendencies -- among other such self-centered and short-sighted bad habits that we have in abundance -- especially so here in the United States. As a species, our arrogance and unchecked greed has led us to take from our host, Mother Earth, as if she were infinite. She is not infinite. And, we are doomed as parasites on this beautiful host unless we rapidly evolve our behavior toward more thoughtful, sustainable practices. We dominate, destroy, take, and pollute as if this Earth were disposable; as if there were many more to be used once this one was exhausted. Yet, there is only one Earth. And, I think she grows tired of us and our juvenile behavior.

Mother Nature has, for millions of years, kept excess carbon safely stored beneath the surface of the Earth - in the form of oil & coal. We dig it up and burn it; releasing it back into the atmosphere. The rain forests, Nature's lungs, scrub carbon from the air and store it in the trees and the Earth; helping to remove carbon dioxide from and otherwise clean the air. We cut them down and burn them; releasing their stored carbon back into the atmosphere. When they go, so do the diverse, vital, mature ecosystems they supported as well as all the carbon they stored and promised to remove from the atmosphere.

To me, it is clear that our behavior must change. It is clear that we are responsible for rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. I, for one, would rather have clean air and beautiful rain forests. And, I am thankful that Al Gore has been one of many voices trying so desperately to raise this issue into the collective conscious of the Human race. Our very survival may well depend on how we resolve to face this situation. I hope we will be responsible, and act responsibly; not shrug and helplessly accept our doom as fate. We have the ability to act. But, do we have the will? I sure hope so.

Help for Haiti ...

charity: water

Firefox 3.5 coming soon!

A shiny, spanking new-and-better version of Firefox will be released next Tuesday (i.e., Firefox v3.5 is scheduled for release 30 June 2009).  Don't like waiting?  Then don't!  You can get a sneak peek and take it for a test drive now.  Just download and install the release candidate from here.  Then, on Tuesday, you can watch for the release of the new version and get a copy for yourself here.  It's nice.  If you like Firefox now (and who doesn't!?), then you'll like this version even better!

Cap and Trade: What is it?

Hank Green over at EcoGeek has a good explanation...

Every day is Earth day...

"We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children." -- Unknown
Happy Earth day!

EPA Proposes Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Yay! Finally, it begins (I hope)! Better late, than never.

Here's the breaking news article from the Washington Post.