The LION on Global Warming

The LION is not impressed with Global Warming.

That is “Global Warming” the political football.

“Global Warming” the physical environmental phenomenon is a different issue altogether.

If the LION were a president, he would not want to hear anything more about global warming be it the political “Global Warming” or the environmental “Global Warming.”

First the political “Global Warming” is nothing more than uninformed political partisanship. The Democrats say this, and the Republicans stick their heads in the sand and say it is not so. If you would toss all of the Democrats and all of the Republicans into a pot, the resulting rhetoric would heat up the world for the next 23 years. The Republicans will then tell you that they reduced hydrocarbon emissions, while the Democrats will tell you that you have heated the ozone layer and added more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. And the LION would remain unimpressed.

And as far as the physical environmental phenomenon of “Global Warming,” the LION has read of vanishing glaciers in Alaska, and warming permafrost in Siberia. The LION despairs over the losses to the rain forests of Brazil and of ozone holes in Antarctica. Some people therefore conclude that the planet is indeed getting warmer. But the planet has gotten alternatively warmer and colder over many millennia, and still it revolves around the sun. Some say: “But this time it was caused by man.” Oh No! The LION looks about, and yes, there is the burning of all sorts of fossil fuels, and yes these are emitting all sorts of pollution, and yes there is a smoking, cloudy haze enveloping the world. And yes, this is a bad thing. But the LION, unlike some certain Democrats of his acquaintance recognizes human kind as a natural part of the environment, just the same as trees, lakes, or yes, even LIONs.

Oh yes, human kind is clever. Human kind has discovered that fire makes heat, and that heat is comfortable. Human kind has discovered that meat can be cooked over a fire, and they say this is a good thing, though the LION has not the patience for such folderol, and would eat the meat raw before the hyenas came to pester him for the leftovers. Sated, the LION goes off to sleep in his den, while human kind must deal with its own hyenas, hyenas that would pester them over every particle of effluent that escapes his machinations. But what is a human kind to do? Stop burning fossil fuels? The LION doesn’t think so. Some human kinds say “Stop the pollution, conserve, protect.” But the LION watches with amusement, knowing that this is impossible.

The LION has spent some time (about 23 minutes to be precise) looking at and considering data on hominid population trends. In the year 1750 of the current epoch world population was under one billion persons (795,000,000 according to this data) and today (well in 2002 according to this data) it was over six billion persons (6,215,000,000 again according to this data). The LION sees that this is concurrent with the advent of the industrial revolution. What is also interesting to the LION is that births have declined over this period from 50 per 1000 to only 23 per 1000. The LION also notes that world population has doubled between the years 1950 and the year 2000.

So the birth rate has declined and the population has doubled, and there are still some people who believe that the use of hydrocarbons, fossil fuels, and the production of pollutants will or can be made to decrease. The LION does not know what school they went to, or if they ever passed a class on arithmetic, but the LION does not understand their reasoning. More people = more fuel = more pollution = more warming. LIONs use simple arithmetic.

Now the LION, as you may well understand, is all in favor of the planet, and of the things that live and grow on said planet. The LION loves the woods, the water, the plains, the animals. The LION even likes people (they taste like chicken), but as much as the LION loves these things, there is no way that people can reduce pollution and environmental impact by any significant margin.

The LION laughs at people who make “Global Warming” an issue:

1) It does not matter if it is true or not true, but let us assume it is.

2) It does not matter if it is “natural” or “man-made”, but let us assume it is man-made.

3) Conservation in the face of population expansion is miniscule to the point of irrelevance.

4) The issue and its attendant debate detracts from any possibility of action.

And it is this fourth point that the LION wishes to address. If you say “Global Warming” then that word, that concept provides a point of attack for those who would say “Not So.” And the issue devolves down to your rhetoric, providing volumes of debate, and no action. The very words “Global Warming” are a lightening rod to discussion, rhetoric, debate, and inaction.

On NO! You have an SUV! Shame on you and your political party too! But the truth is that if all of the SUVs were gone tomorrow, there would still be just as many cars on the road. The difference in fuel usage at this point is miniscule. More significant would be to get all of the older cars off of the road. Just think, if all of the older cars were replaced with SUVs, that in and of itself would be a net improvement (or so the LION guesses). But even taking all of the cars off of the road would be little improvement. The LION can make this outrageous statement, true or not, because of the patent impossibility of the proposition. But the increase of commuter rail and subway services could eliminate the need for so much automobile mileage as to make a significant dent not so much in fuel consumption, but more so in road and highway construction, in urban congestion, and would move a long way to return cities to a human scale, rather than being designed for automobiles. People might have a “town car” that is fully electric, and a bigger one for trips. Cities might be built with parking lots on the outside, and street cars or moving sidewalks on the inside. Cities should be for people, not for cars. Indeed, even 1000 years ago, they knew enough to park the horses outside of the castle.

And the LION knows, even if politicians do not, that oil is a finite substance and will soon enough be exhausted. The LION does not regret the disappearance of the automobile, and electricity can be made by nuclear power plants, but can you begin to imagine the impact that the loss of hydrocarbons, of plastics would mean to the world. No of course you do not, for you have never even given it any thought. When the LION was a little cub, he remembers how people would complain about how cheap plastics were, and how things were no longer made of metal. Well upon reflection, the loss of plastics would put an end to the world as you hominids know and understand it.

But energy, and energy consumption, be it hydrocarbon-fossil fuel or even nuclear will make a continuing impact and change on our planet. And the LION discounts solar and wind schemes as just so much hot air and mirrors, a drop in the basket of energy needs and sources. The planet will continue to change, not always for the better be you felid or hominid, but there is really nothing that can be done regarding this issue vis a vis energy consumption and usage, if only because the hominid population will continue in its expansion, and thus will have a growing need for said energies.

And the LION is as he has said, a friend of the planet, of the trees and of the water, of the sky and of the animals. The LION thinks (to the extent that LIONs do think) that conservation is a good thing. That environmental protection is a good thing. That protection of species is a very good thing. But the LION also thinks that we should be doing these things for their own intrinsically good reasons and not because of “Global Warming” and certainly not because some factions find political fodder in the findings.