Why will I turn my lights ON this Earth Hour?

Last year for Earth Hour, a rather angry and self righteous woman came up to me and said that my pollution was poisoning the air and my childrens lungs.  She had a lit cigarette in her hand as she accused me.

I think it is time for a little perspective.

Our air is cleaner than it has been in a hundred years.  So is our water and so is our soil.  Sure, that Fire Engine pollutes some, but the fire it puts out pollutes more.

Mining does hurt the earth.  But without mining, where would we get the metal for needles for the millions of diabetics worldwide?

People are living longer than ever before.  People are healthier than at any time in recorded history.  Every Olympics new records are set.

Life is good.  No one wants to go back to the time before central heating and plumbing.

Well.  Is all this stuff really going to kill the Earth?  Will all my pollution actually contribute to an Apocalypse?

Hmm.  Not long ago, glaciers scraped everything off the face of North America.  It was an ecological nightmare of the very first order.  And it happened all by itself.  And it recovered all by itself.

When the settlers came to North America, they did not find barren rock, they found forests.

And in five hundred years they transformed those forests into a civilization that could launch a rocket to the moon.

That angry lady said that my pollution is heating up the earth and is going to melt the icecaps.  If she is right, all the experts agree that the process will take thousands of years.  Greenland alone is expected to take between twenty and thirty thousand years to melt.

In five hundred years we have gone from Columbus to the Moon.  In five hundred more who knows where we will be.

I think we will be able to handle it.  I honestly believe that we will build some really incredible stuff in the next five hundred years.  I think cancer will likely be cured.  I think we will probably have colonies on other worlds.  I think the video games will be really really cool.

So I do not believe that global warming will be an issue in five hundred years.  But I do think that we will probably still be plagued by angry and self righteous people intent on telling us what is wrong with our lives.

So here is what I'm going to do.  I'm going to turn my lights on for Earth Hour.

Rather than succumb to her dark world view, I'm going to lighten up.

You are welcome to join me if you like.  But no smoking please.  It hurts my kids lungs.