"Environmental Conservation" is out of his vocabulary

Wow, it's been crazy busy. But now I'm done with the term papers and finals. I can't wait to be done with school again. Now if I can only figure out what I want to do when I grow up...again.

I heard something on the radio yesterday that really pissed me off. It was in interview with the (House? Senate?) Science Committee about global warming and alternative fuels. He said that for years he had been pushing the issue as an environmental or conservation issue, and nobody paid attention. The last year or so he's dropped those words from his vocabulary with respect to alternative fuels, and people started paying attention. He got even more attention when he turned it into an issue of national security and consumer benefit. What a steaming load! We have known for a few decades that we are either causing or GREATLY exacerbating global climate change, but people didn't want to accept it. Now, there is no doubt. It is incontrovertible fact that we are at the very least a huge part of the problem. When scientists say anything about our involvement with global warming, they don't even cite studies on it any more. It's just a statement of fact. There have been studies on the attitudes of Americans vs. the opinions of just about every other country on the globe in regards to climate change and conservation, and the results make me want to cry. Americans are wasting much more of the world's resources than they should be proportionally to the population, but they don't want to take responsibility and change their behavior to make it right. A shockingly large percentage of Americans don't even think global warming is happening. And out of all of the countries surveyed, only the results for Americans had a column for a response saying they didn't care. I just don't understand. Global climate change and habitat loss are the causes of the massive amount of extinctions that are occurring right now, and it's obvious that people are causing both. How could you not care?

I heard another interview some time back with a man from Somalia. He emigrated to the U.S. during the "conflict" there and said he never wanted to see his home again. He also said he would be happy if his sons never saw the home they came from either. I'm sure those statements have deep meaning for him, and they do for me, as well. Home is a very profound word with great connotations. For me it stirs emotions and memories of tangible and intangible. A home has the combined spirit of everyone and everything in it (in addition to that of its location), and he has forsaken his. That's not something to take lightly. He is a janitor for a hotel in NYC. He was there for 9/11. Yet, he still says he feels more secure here than at any other time or place in his life. And he says it at a time when a record number of Americans are feeling the least secure.

The same day of the interview with the man from Somalia, I heard George W. Bush talking about all of the people who have died to provide us with our security--that their deaths were not in vane. He was talking about the coalition soldiers who've died, and he was talking to their families. He didn't mention the innocent Iraqis. How many more people have to die for the security of the most secure nation on the planet? After 9/11 W did say something right. We have to be right 100% of the time to keep terrorist acts from occurring. Terrorists only have to get it right once. In other words, as long as we keep trampling others for our security or to get what we want, terrorists are going to get it right on occasion.

You know, even after all this venting, I don't feel down. I've actually had a very good week that I'll write more about later. I'm just angry is all. I just don't understand what's going on with this country. We have such great potential, and we're blowing it.

Later, dudes and dudettes.