I finally got around to watching Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth this weekend and, to be totally honest, I was blown away. I believe that if this movie had been released in the summer of 2000, Al Gore would have won the 2000 election against George W. Bush and we would be living in a very different world right now (I didn’t say “better” just “different”).

And while I agree with my friend AntiMedia that the rhetoric on global warming detracts from the scientific debate on the theory’s merits; I think the focus on whether Global Warming is valid as a scientific theory totally misses the point.

Pragmatically, it makes perfect sense for the citizenry of the United States to begin taking steps to curb their use of fossil fuels and to reduce their waste and recycle their refuse.

It is the humane and civil thing to do because we utilize the vast majority of the earth’s resources to fuel our own civilization. We are not animals and we have intelligent minds for a reason. I do believe that we are shepherds of this planet and not in a holy writ master to slave relationship but that of an adult caring for an aging and beautiful but violent parent.

It makes sense to do these things now because while tomorrow may not be too late, unless we begin to formulate this theory of shepherding the earth and its resources into the core of our culture; our children will not learn these ways to pass on to their descendents.

Responsibility begins with each of us and to prove it, my wife and I have signed up to recycle (something we haven’t done yet because it wasn’t a priority). Here in Columbus, it will be about $5 a month to recycle and I believe this is a reasonable amount to pay. Also, we have stopped washing our clothes in hot water, going for warm instead.

And you can bet your ass that when I finally build my dream home, it will have solar panels, a windmill and a geothermal heating and cooling system and any other little ditties our green friends have come up with by then. Because while it may be in vogue to dismiss the tree huggers as do-gooders without merit, their hearts are in the right place and the responsibility of tending to the only planet we have right now is not a conservative or a liberal issue–it’s a human thing, baby! And I think it’s about time we stepped up.

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