We Went to see "An Inconvenient Truth." last night.

Travis, I know what a big Al Gore fan that you are, so I have decided to join the bandwagon ;).

Seriously, the film was well presented. Even for those who do not believe that we are hurting the environment by dumping tons of smog into the air every day should see this movie just so they hear both sides of the argument. I know that some will say that the atmosphere is so big that it can handle little ole me, but is this really the case? Is there really only "little ole me?"

I just had this thought come into my mind; it will make the biggest point to all of the swimmers out there. If you were in a pool, let's even say a nice size pool at the YMCA with the 15 meter diving board and all, would you be ok someone jumped in and urinated in the pool? I know that I don't like the idea, and urine is sterile so it won't REALLY hurt me! The pee in the pool thing is similar to the environmental issue. Twenty ounces of urine in a 35,000 gallon pool certainly won't hurt anyone right? It is probably right, but what if we were going for a swim and thousands of people jumped in the pool and relieved themselves? I bet the nature of the water would change in a way that the pool would still be there, and yes you could still go for a dip, but would you really want to?

The very same thing is going on with the environment. The air around our cities is VISIBLY tainted. Every day there are level orange smog warnings, and the last time I went to Colorado (1989) Denver could not be seen from the surrounding mountains due to the smog. That was 15 years ago; I wonder what Denver looks like from those mountain vistas now? The fact is simple, what is coming out of our cars, our factories, and our power plants is not good for our health, or the health of the planet. We cannot be so naive to believe that companies or our government (who is heavily lobbied by the aforementioned company representatives) to make the best decisions for the future of this planet.

To me it seems like we are peeing in our own pool, and even though it is necessary at times, we should do it consciously. There are ways that each of us can reduce our carbon footprint in this world, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that government is not beyond our reach. If one of us screams for help, government may not be able to hear (over the sound of the trucks, busses, and coal based power plants), but if we unite and scream together we can be heard. This is a serious issue, and it needs to be attended to now. Go to ClimateCrisis.net to learn how YOU can make a difference.

Please wait for the video to load, it is rather large.

About the video:
Al Gore, in his own words, "used to be the next President of the United States of America" but has since changed professions. This talk is a follow-up to his now-famous presentation, featured in the movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." In it, he outlines what we can do to avert a global climate crisis. [Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA]