This is an important and insightful post. I heartily recommend it! I hope that it gets the attention it deserves. I have found, however, that even on a site where the average person is far more aware and interested in environmental issues, that there's not a whole lot of interest and/or enthusiasm for this particular subject.

You've got 10 or so years on me, but I remember quite vividly what the climate was like when I was growing up and it clearly has changed dramatically. Anyone who has been paying the slightest attention has noticed this particularly in the past 10-15 years. When you consider the implications of literally causing the weather pattern to change and what it will take to reverse that change is both daunting and frightening.

Not long before he died, I saw an interview with Kurt Vonnegut on television. I forget what program, but it was a serious and thoughtful interview mainly focused on the idiotic war in Iraq. But during the interview Vonnegut stated flatly that he thought we (the human race) were a virus making the planet sick, but that as a living organism with a healthy immune system, earth was changing itself to kill us off so that planet could remain healthy. He concluded it was the only cure for us because humanity could not keep from causing all the harm to itself and the planet. That metaphor stuck with me obviously, but I think in many ways it is accurate. Your post takes a similar view and it's hard to dispute.

I have one quibble and that is that we have more than the power to destroy ourselves which makes global warming the megaissue it is. If it were only our own demise it would still be an issue, but not quite as profound in my opinion. We have the power to destroy life on earth as we know it and as it has occured naturally for eons. This is an issue far more serious than just us. I agree that the earth will go on in some form. But from a moral standpoint and not just an egoistical human standpoint we simply do not have the right to destroy life as we know it for one thing. And for another, we have an obligation to our posterity to preserve the earth so that they may experience life here and the marvelous wonders it holds.

You write that humans are the only animal capable of essentially denying reality. That may be. We are also the only species that has the combined capabilities of self awareness, rational thought, and the ability to adapt creatively in a vast range of circumstances. If there are other beings on earth that have this same capability as we do I am unaware of them. Perhaps there are others elsewhere in the galaxy or universe at large that have this capability, but for our purposes I think it in our best interest to assume there are no others elsewhere either. Therefore, those of us humans who are not completely consumed with themselves and their own immediate world of wants and needs are morally obligated to do whatever is necessary to preserve the earth on behalf of all life as we know it. We simply do not have the luxury to take the Scarlett O'Hara option of thinking about that tomorrow. We must think and act right away to preserve the magnificent environment that has spawned the beauty of life on earth. This assumes that the earth intinsically made choices far superior to any we may make for life on earth and that it is not our right or our place to alter that to the point of making the planet uninhabitable for the many life forms we know depend upon the climate as it is. Let nature itself change the climate as it sees fit, but it is not humanity's place to make the earth bend to it's will or actions to the point of altering the very existence of the balance of life and resources the earth provides.

Yes, you are right, should we fail in our obligation to the future life on earth as we have known it the planet will endure. But it seems to me anyone with even the slightest appreciation for the magnificence of life in this unique and stunning environment ought to be able to understand that over and above humanity, the rest of it is far too precious to allow ourselves to squander our inheritance and ruin the future itself. It would be the ultimate crime against humanity and nature if we fail to correct our destructive actions.

Right now, it seems to me we are in the same state of human denial that most smokers deal with. They know that smoking is far too dangerous to their health to continue, but because they are addicted and it isn't literally causing them immediate harm and/or killing them in the now, they put off trying to stop smoking thinking that they will before it is too late. They rationalize the unnecessary delay in quitting with a million plausible reasons, but the truth is they fail to stop because they weren't sufficiently committed to stopping. For all too many people, they make the mistake of raiontalizing too long and rolling the dice one time too many times and then end up with heart, lung, arterial and other wretched diseases that end up killing them. Some kill quickly like heart attack. Others kill slowly and painfully like emphysema. I would think global warming is more akin to emphysema which is an ugly and terrifying way to go.

Global warming, as we know, is literally caused by our the smoking habit of the industrial societies of the world: the US being the heaviest and most addicted smoker of them all per capita. It's time we got serious about an effective smoking cessation program before it is too late. The sole obstcle is whether or not we are really committed to doing what we need to do to stop killing ourselves and our incomparably planet.

Thank you for the funeral dirge. Last Thanksgiving I was having some work done outside and the contractor brought a Bobcat to move some pavement.

I interupted him and asked him to dig a pond. A week later I had a 100 foot pond 8 feet deep. Today it is 3/4 filled, and I'm going to stock bullfrogs and mosquito fish to start. Then sunfish and bass.

I am thinking of putting in a solar panel water pump so if the fires come as they have in other places, I can float in my pond and try and save my little tree stand.

Pretty pathetic, I know. This year I am adding to the fruit trees and also putting in all kinds of berry and grapevines.

I sure hope people laugh at me 20 years from now when the climate has stabalized and it was all for nought.

But just imagine for a minute if this pond and its surrounding fruits and berries were the only source in this area.

Maybe I should put up a fence, and buy a gun or two. I won't give up just yet.

Global warming isn't actually going to kill anyone directly, although increased likelyhood of hurricanes would not be fun. If sea levels rise a few feet, it will be bad, and people will need to move, but it wouldn't kill anyone, much less everyone.

When I logged onto aol the other day there was a picture of a bright light in the sky over Texas. The local weather board, and the military both said they did not know what caused the phenomenon. There was a question and you could vote on the answer:

Do you think this is falling space debris?

1. Yes
2. No
3. Not sure

I was amazed that people could have an opinion on something they knew absolutely nothing about, based on a picture, and so I clicked on "not sure" to find out what the "survey" showed. By the time I did this, over 32,000 people had taken the survey, and more than 19,000 of them thought that the light in the picture was from falling space debris. Around 5,000 had the opinion that it was NOT due to debris, and the remaining 7,000 plus of us humbly had not formed an opinion.

Those who call this observed and tested phenomenon a hoax just don't want it to be true, and so they have an "opinion" based on their ideology. They find one or two crackpot "experts" like George Will, who pull statistics out of their asses and run with them.

There are many things I have learned in my life that I didn't want to be true, but sometimes it just isn't about what a person (or a political party) wants.

OK, TPM crowd, what is your opinion of the light in Texas? Although I am officially "not sure" I kinda think it is a nuke that Cheney sent to take out W, but it just hit Dick's friend in the face.