Lead, follow... get out of the way!

This country, one of the world's leading contributors in pumping carbon dioxide and other pollutants into our atmosphere, needs to get its act together (bet you thought I was going to say something a bit more urbane, didn't you?) and lead the rest of the world in saving our world from utter destruction!

We talk and talk and talk, then talk some more about creating new "green" jobs; about cleaning up our environment; about taking the technological lead; yet STILL our country has not had the balls to break its dependence on foreign oil; or find a way to utilize clean energy such as wind power, solar power, geothermal energy or ocean currents to power our cities; to go "green" and to repair the environmental damage our thoughtlessness has set in motion.

And still the evidence piles up daily with each new study clearly indicating our recklessness is leading to the extinction of more and more plant and animal species including the polar bear; the decimation of fish populations such as tuna in our oceans; the death of the ocean's coral reefs; and the ruination of the tropical rain forests of South America.

The fragile balance we call the food chain is on the verge of collapse and yet we act as if nothing is wrong! It would be a crime against this planet if are the root cause of vast extinctions worldwide. It is bad enough we kill our own with barely a second thought but to murder defenseless creatures is a unconscionable.

Last week, former Vice President Al Gore, Jr, mentioned on the David Letterman Show that enough solar energy hits our earth every single minute to power our planet's energy needs for the rest of our lives (and beyond)... IF only we would do the work to harness it. Wasted energy! and we do... nothing! Absolutely nothing about it!

If it is not evident that we are heading towards an ecological collapse, nothing is... and all we can do is talk about trading energy units and how excessive it will cost to combat this problem. The real question is at what cost will we suffer by doing nothing?

Today, as I walked through the local Barnes & Noble bookstore where I work, I saw a book that showed a lone polar bear swimming amongst the broken ice floes of the frigid Arctic Ocean. This left leaning liberal is not ashamed to admit the photo nearly moved me to tears when I considered the photo's dramatic implications.

I am not so naive to realize that the photo was an obvious attempt in manipulating my emotions... and it did! I don't care. If we cannot see how our planet's ecological balance has changed dramatically in the past fifty years (AND will continue to do so even more), then we deserve everything we will get by inaction!

And even in the most remote of possibilities that current scientific leanings are wrong or alarmist, what possible harm could come of developing new, clean energy sources for our planet's use?

My thoughts on this subject are obvious. And to our political, business, engineering and scientific leaders I say... lead! follow! get out of the way! BUT dammit, do something!!!