Last week, it was announced that Al Gore would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in informing the world of the ever-growing threat of ManBearPig. I mean, Global Warming. Whatever. Since this was in the aftermath of Homecoming, I wasn't sure I had actually heard this, but now that I know it happened, I felt the need to say something. I’m not saying that it is real, or if it isn’t, but I am saying that the planet has been around for well over 5 billion years, and has survived way more than we petty humans, and thinking that we can do serious damage to this little blue marble is the ultimate in human conceit.
The planet “Earth”, the silly name that we gave this little perfect oasis of life, has seen much worse than us in its existence. The planet has been through a lot worse than us, been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles...hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages. To think that we, humans, can hurt this place in only 200 years of heavy industry goes beyond conceit, and delves into psychosis.
Add into the fact that before recent years, we have had no dependable way to gauge the temperature of the planet until recently, and I have to call into doubt all the findings. I don’t know if its real, or not, and I don’t really care. My natural cynicism won’t let me be sucked into the hype of these claims, no matter how much I’m supposed to be. Sorry.
