"None Like it Hot"

If someone said they were going to kill you and your family, how would you feel? Consider this: "I am going to kill you and your family." How do you feel now?

I am and there is nothing you can do about it. How am I going to do it? Well, I am going to get into my car and drive.

Sounds simple and legal right? It is. It is called being a human being and, in 50 years or so, being a human with my attitude will be illegal.

Why? Global warming.

You guessed it; I am going to kill you and your entire family just by being me. So you can literally eat my dust. That is what your children will be inhaling as they run around outside. Dust is what farmers will try to plant future crops in.

Why? How? Global warming. Sorry to rub your face in it, but it is the truth. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, "Rising global temperatures are expected to raise sea level, and change precipitation and other local climate conditions. Changing regional climate conditions could alter forests, crop yields, and water supplies. It could also affect human health, animals, and many types of ecosystems."

Global warming affects everything from temperature to family vacations. The recent heat wave is an excellent example. As the atmosphere traps more and more greenhouse gasses, the planet heats up. This heating trend is not unprecedented, it has happened every year before this one, but not to this extent. The data on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Web site shows that 2005 was the warmest year on record, a record extending back to the 1890s.

To simplify, "The five warmest years over the last century occurred in the last eight years," said James Hansen, Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In the past, the Earth was able to cool itself but the unchecked burning of fossil fuels, e.g. SUV's and coal-burning power plants combined with rampant deforestation has hampered that ability. The planet is not a cookie jar. We cannot expect to keep reaching in the Earth's crust and finding a thick, warm, and gooey barrel of crude oil.

What we can expect is increasing temperatures, soaring energy costs and the gradual extinction of plant and animal life on planet Earth. We can expect the stunning wonders of the natural world to cease to exist in their current states. The once mighty Colorado River is no longer mighty, as it no longer reaches the sea. Glacier National Park is another casualty. The once majestic glaciers are now all but gone, reduced to barren rock. Global warming is not just a buzzword, it is a mounting crisis. It affects everything we do and hope to do in the future.

I hope to see the grandeur of the world so I am going to get in my car and drive.

Sorry.