Inconvenient Indeed...

Today I watched "An Inconvenient Truth", Al Gore's documentary on global warming. Boy, was that ever an eye-opener. Unfortunately, since this is a documentary film, it tends to not show in the big multi-plexes. This is a real shame, because global warming is a serious problem which should be getting much more attention than it's getting right now. Instead, we seem to concern ourselves with items such as the stupid 1% GST cut that our lovely Conservative government made as an election promise. Oh, and by the way, they're using money that was originally allotted to cut greenhouse gas emissions to fund this GST cut. Of course, you could care less right now. After all, a 1% GST cut is MONEY SAVED! I guess that saving the planet and our entire way of life just isn't as important...

Here are just some of the ways that we're royally screwing the planet unecessarily:

1. Driving around in big SUVs. Seriously people, you're not off-roading in the city!!!


2. Leaving lights on in buildings at night. I understand that tall buildings need their little flashy lights on top to keep the airplanes from crashing into them at night, but do you REALLY need to leave on the lights on entire floors at night? We should take the lead from our European counterparts and learn to leave our building lights off. If your store is closed at night, I don't really care to see what's inside your store or what your blasted neon signs say.


3. Idling cars. People seem to think that just because they're going to take 5 minutes to grab something quickly at the store, they can just leave their car running, parked in front of the store. What a waste...especially with the high price of gasoline these days.


4. CD and DVD wrappers. What a waste of plastic, and what a waste of a petroleum product that will just end up tossed in the garbage, taking years to decompose, if ever. Not to mention the pollutants that were released into the atmosphere to make the stupid cellophane wrapping. Again, we should take the lead of our European counterparts and not use cellophane for wrapping CDs and DVDs - instead, we should use those security cages (I really have no idea what the bloody things are called) that are re-usable and that the store clerks just remove for you when you pay for your CD or DVD. No mess, no frustrations.


5. Coal-burning plants. Well, the Ontario government threw a real doozie on us this week when they said that except for one plant, their other coal-burning plants won't be shutting down by 2007, or 2009, for that matter. And guess what? All this is courtesy of our weirdly-overly-hot summers that we've been having of late, which is due to our good old pal, Global Warming! Oh, and I'm not done. In the US, some stupid lobby group actually had the balls to put together an ad campaign to "educate" us common folk about the benefits of so-called "clean-burning" coal plants. What's more disturbing is that they try use children to sucker you into believing their crap. If you want to see for yourself, just go here.

Sure, that Dennis Quaid movie from last year, "The Day After Tomorrow" sensationalized the whole rapid climate change bit. But think of it: we don't seem to react to things unless they're drastic. As humans, we love the drastic and the bleak. It's unfortunate, but it seems like that's the only thing that will get us to give important issues the time of day.

Unfortunately, no matter how urgent things are, there will always be a group of people who will dismiss things. There will always be your fuddy-duddy group of political fat-cats who claim that we have to choose between the economy and the environment. What a load of crap! Of course you don't have to choose because there IS NO CHOICE. It's simple: no Earth = no economy. You don't have to be a math major to figure that one out.

I applaud Al Gore for putting this documentary together. I also applaud him for embarking on this personal crusade to educate and enlighten the world on the serious threat of global warming.

Hopefully this rant has made you want to go and do something to help our ailing planet. If so, here are some sites to help you get started:

1. Thames Region Ecological Association (TREA)


2. "An Inconvenient Truth" - Movie Web Site


3. The Stop Global Warming Silent March