Chabot Spectator

Issue date: 12/14/06 Section: Points Of View

Media Credit: David Steffes

I am one of the elder students at Chabot. I encourage all of you to make an effort to see the documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

As I look back on the life I have enjoyed with my family and the changes I have seen, I dread to consider what waits for this generation of students.

Frankly, I shudder with remorse that I have not spoken out sooner on this subject. Last winter, in Antarctica, I spent three weeks on a small icebreaker with scientists and like-minded people.

To my horror, dressed in my shorts, I waded through the streams of melt-water, running across thawing glaciers, a sign that former Vice President Al Gore "cautions" us about in his film.

After watching the movie, I frankly doubt if the populations of the world have the will to turn global warming around.

Even if the populace agrees to challenge the industrialists in charge on every continent, they will not permit it to happen.

When I say "industrialists" I am referring to the capital ownership in Europe, Asia and North America, and the politicians, news bureaucrats and educators who are manipulated to do their bidding.

"Industrialists" extend far beyond the production of energy. They include the providers in heavy industry, the providers of services we purchase, the food we eat, and the unnecessary gadgets and trinkets we buy.

We conveniently forget that it takes gasoline, jet fuel, bunker and diesel fuels to bring us the foods we crave, and the other junk we don't need!

Having worked for an oil company and devoted great interest to the physical sciences, I have followed most of my life "the global warming phenomenon" and the "energy crisis" in scientific journals. Always there was a footnote, "the evidence is not conclusive."

I usually don't go to the movies, but I knew An Inconvenient Truth was a must-see; I went three times to see this one.

When it first came out, I went by myself. Then I went two more times with friends who were dragged kicking and screaming all the way. But they came away with quizzical looks on their faces.

This blockbuster movie, An Inconvenient Truth, was just released on DVD. I hope many of you will pick it up and watch it with friends and relatives.

According to a recent article in the Washington Post, 50,000 copies of the film have been offered to science instructors across America. But the offer is not being accepted.

The article claims "big oil" is involved in discouraging its distribution, which may be true.

Several weeks ago I had the privilege of attending a dinner reception with the keynote speaker, former Vice President Al Gore.

He talked generally about global warming. The gathering was composed of people with a genuine concern for those who live in the Himalayas.

The main point Mr. Gore attempted to make was this: The water from the ice that tops the highest mountain range in the world (the Himalayas) provides the irrigation required for crops that feed 40 percent of the population of the Earth.

Seven major rivers drain from these mountains, including the Yangtze, the Indus and the Ganges. When the Himalaya reservoir of ice and snow melts, there will not be water flowing year-round to grow rice in the millions of acres of paddies that sustain the meager diets of billions of people in China, India and Pakistan.

Last week my daughter alerted me that former Vice President Gore would appear on The Oprah Show to discuss his views on global warming.

I watched. Again, he came across as very convincing, even more than in person or in the movie.

But I became very concerned that he talked only of carbon dioxide emissions.

There was no mention, other than population growth, of any other major contributor of green house gases.

The process of feeding the world's population, which has nearly tripled in my lifetime, is the major contributor of global warming.

It is "us." I don't mean the gaseous emissions we sometimes personally release, but the "methane gas," which is produced in wet rice cultivation.

Methane gas contributes overwhelmingly to global warming, just like carbon dioxide. We are simply asking planet Earth to feed too many people.

I challenge every one of you who has access to a computer, before you hang one garland on your Christmas tree, to search the Internet for an article on global warming.

To make it easy for you, I suggest you search using the words, "rice," "cultivation" and "methane."

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