I never thought I'd see the day I could watch C-Span and be interested

I was flipping channels the other day and landed on C-span, where they were showing some heated testimonial from some subcommittee talking about global warming. The person on the committee was trying to somewhat undermine the credibility of the scientist who was testifying, trying to essentially label him as a wacky liberal democrat.. so it was awesome when they guy said something to the effect of "I'm actually not a democrat, in fact I usually vote republican."

As we see ice caps melting and every year being hotter than all previous years on record, the issue of global warming is starting to sink in on both sides of the political spectrum. Lots of people argue that "hey, this is part of the natural cycle of the earth, it happens and it's natural."

My position is that I don't really care if it's natural or unnatural. Extinction happens too.. just ask the dinosaurs. The world is getting hotter, and it's in my interest to try and make it not get hotter because it will affect my future quality of life, whether we are the cause or not.

The first thing we have to do is get rid of (or at least apply pressure to) politicians who put their own objectives (and financial supporters) above the real issues, and care more about deflecting blame than fixing the problem. I was annoyed but not surprised to read this quote:

"I said, 'John, I can't do that'. He said, 'Come on. Do me a favor. I want to help you here.'"

-- Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), to House Republican Leader John Boehner, who had said Gilchrest could only be appointed to the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming if he would say that humans are not causing climate change (in addition to Gilchrest, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, a research scientist from Maryland, and Rep. Vern Ehlers, the first research physicist to serve in Congress, were not selected)

So yea... let's do something about it.

I also got an email from Laurie David today, where I learned that Kleenex is being unresponsible as well. I plan to vote on that with my consumer spending dollars, and in case kleenex marketers happen to be reading this: yes I AM willing to spend more to help the environment.

GLOBAL WARMING AND KLEENEX
Kimberly-Clark, parent company to Kleenex and Scott brands, refuses to stop using virgin paper fiber from the endangered North American Boreal forests, which represent one quarter of the world's remaining intact ancient forests, vital to fighting global warming. More than 700 businesses have pledged not to use Kimberly-Clark products, and we encourage you to do the same.