Hot Topic

Plenty of nay-sayers will tell you that climate change and global warming is a natural occurrence and therefore, humans should not interfere or attempt to change the earth’s natural weather cycle. Many also claim the whole subject is simply hype from governments who want to scare us into paying carbon taxes. Sounds fair enough.

However, plenty of pro-global warming and climate change enthusiasts will tell you that regardless of whether or not global warming is indeed made by man, by the earth heating up too much, the weather will change so drastically that eventually people’s lives will be greatly effected. It’s obvious that humans add to this problem, so why not try and do something about it now? Which, also sounds fair enough. (Not to mention the small fact that the world gets a little bit more polluted each year regardless).

(Melting Ice-Cream Truck, sculpture by Orest Keywan in Australia, winner of the Sculpture by The Sea prize in 2006) 

Many people are caught sitting on the fence when it comes to global warming and climate change, what causes it and what to do about it, if anything at all. Many believers think something should be done but do little themselves to create solutions and rely totally on government intervention. Many scientists are divided on the topic with some believing that its not rocket science and that climate change is the greatest threat to man as we know it today, aside from the possibility of an all out nuclear war perhaps.

Whether your ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ for global warming/climate change, plenty of questions arise when contemplating the possibilities. If your yay for example, who’s responsibility is it to fix the problem? Should we rely on industry or governments to implement changes? Do we have enough time to create a solution? How much is all this going to cost us? What can I do to really make a difference? Why aren’t more solutions being put into practice faster around the world?

And if your nay, you might ask why should we respond to a natural weather cycle? Why should I have to change my lifestyle for something I don’t believe will affect me? Should we sacrifice the country’s economy to fix a problem, which might not even be real? Why are so many people sucked into the Al Gore hype? If I am going to be paying more from carbon taxes, am I going to get paid more?

Burning questions for a hot topic.

One example of a multinational billion dollar organization offering to lend a helping hand in the climate change battle (for public relations benefits or otherwise), is Richard B ransom’s Virgin. The Virgin Earth Challenge is a prize of $25 million for whoever can demonstrate to the judges’ satisfaction a commercially viable design which results in the removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gasses so as to contribute materially to the stability of Earth’s climate.

Check out http://www.virginearth.com for more info.

Andrew Bolt, blog writer for the Herald Sun in Australia dose’nt seem to warm to Richard’s try-hard do-gooder approach to saving the planet.. check out his article at http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/2007/02/20/