In his editorial on the movie The Day After Tomorrow, Steven Milloy of Fox News shares his beliefs that humans are not contributing to global warming, nor that global warming will have the ecological impact that the movie theorizes it might. Well, he's allowed to have his own opinions and beliefs, that's the beauty of freedom.

Granted, the debate about global warming is still going on. The issue hasn't been 100% settled on either side of the argument. However, neither has the argument about whether or not cell phones cause brain tumors. The argument hasn't been settled, but I'd take the side of caution. Maybe cell phones don't cause brain tumors, but if they do, do I want to risk it? Maybe humans aren't causing global warming (and maybe global warming won't destroy civilization), but if they do (and it does), well, is that a risk we want to take?

But would we even want civilization as we know it to survive? Could the cusp of civilization actually be a good thing and bring about a smaller civilization which cares more for its fellow humans than our current civilization?

I mean, when a company as rich and prosperous as Exxon won't even finish cleaning up after their mistakes by paying the fines they've been ordered to pay to the fishermen hurt by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill (see: Exxon's Valdez Fines Still Unpaid), then what hope is there for our civilization?

Sure, this is an extreme case. Sure, corporations are known for their greed. But still, if corporations (and the people behind them) are products of our civilization, and if one of the largest corporations in the world has such severe lacking of morals and concern for fellow humans, then what does that say for our civilization that could create such a monster?

From CBS News: Carbon Dioxide Levels Sky High:

Carbon dioxide, the gas largely blamed for global warming, has reached record-high levels in the atmosphere after growing at an accelerated pace in the past year, say scientists monitoring the sky from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.

The climatologists forecast continued temperature rises that will disrupt the climate, cause seas to rise and lead to other unpredictable consequences, unpredictable in part because of uncertainties in computer modeling of future climate.

"Unpredictable" could include the shutting down of the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt... considering that this feature of the Earth which brings warm climates to Europe was unknown until only recently. If we've only just now begun to learn of this and what dire consequences it could have if it gets shut down because too much fresh water from melting glaciers seeps into it, then I'd say that that is not only unpredictable, but something we don't want to learn about the hard way.

[The] year-to-year increase of about 3 parts per million is considerably higher than the average annual increase of 1.8 parts per million over the past decade, and markedly more accelerated than the 1-part-per-million annual increase recorded a half-century ago, when observations were first made here.

So this means that more carbon dioxide is being pumped into the atmosphere now than ever before... Which could only mean that, if global warming is being caused by increased carbon dioxide, then this warming is sure to only increase in the coming years.

From Wired.com: Mass Extinction Not Inevitable:

Two new studies published this week in Science that show steep declines in bird, butterfly and plant populations across Great Britain provide the strongest proof yet that we are in the midst of the sixth great extinction of life.

Great... I wonder if humanity will become part of this extinction. I hope not, but you have to admit that the odds are against us.

So why is the article titled "Mass Extinction Not Inevitable"? Because Stuart Pimm, a leading conservation biologist at Duke University, thinks that we can stop this mass extinction, if we act "right away".

We have to stop doing stupid things like subsidizing economically and ecologically damaging activities. ... The Florida Everglades are in trouble because we prop up the sugar industry, which spews huge amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and other chemicals into it. We pay higher sugar prices, we pay to clean their mess and we lose the natural amenities of the Everglades. That's a stupid thing and we should change it.

Unfortunately, Big Money is behind the sugar industry in Florida, and the people behind Big Money probably don't really care about saving few species of butterflies or birds. The people behind Big Money probably think that they are safe from mass extinction because they have Big Money. They probably think that their money and economics will protect them, and that they can buy any protection they need. But what they probably don't realize is that they may not have anyone to buy protection from if civilization is collapsing. So, stopping Big Money from its destruction of the environment probably isn't going to happen.

Actually I am optimistic about slowing the rate of extinctions. These are not unmanageable problems. Tropical forest deforestation could be almost entirely stopped by buying out the logging permits. It would cost $5 billion, which is a lot of money, but not an enormous amount.

Well, I'm glad Mr. Pimm is optimistic, unfortunately I'm not. Why? Because the people who could afford $5 billion to help save the environment and our futures, probably don't care that much about them.

Thanks to President George W. Bush not following through with what his father started, now Russia may pull out of the Kyoto treaty and prevent it from being ratified. From the article: “U.N. to Russia: Ratify Kyoto!”:

Bush's father, ex-President George Bush, signed up for the climate change Convention at a 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and told delegates "we must leave this earth in better condition than we found it."

Kyoto will collapse without Russian backing because it must be ratified by countries accounting for 55 percent of carbon dioxide emissions by industrialized countries.

The protocol needs Russia's 17 percent to reach the goal after the withdrawal of the United States with 36 percent. But President Vladimir Putin has expressed worries Kyoto might limit Russian economic growth.

So, thanks to Bush once again not listening to his father, industrialized nations won’t help reduce global warming, glaciers will melt, the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt will shut down, we’ll be thrown into a mini Ice Age and civilization as we know it will be forever altered.

See, I told you we’re on the cusp of civilization.

OK, let’s say it all together now: hydrogen is not an energy source:

• AlterNet: A Hydrogen Economy Is a Bad Idea
• TCS: Tech Central Station - No Alternative to Reality
• WNA | Annual Symposium 2002 | Hydrogen Fuel and Electricity in Transportation
• Environmental and Energy Study Institute
• Kicking the Oil Habit - What Matters

So, when you hear the U.S. Department of Energy talking about how “hydrogen-fueled cars [are] an important way to ensure national security by reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil”, you have to wonder about their competency. And you also have to wonder just where they expect to get all this hydrogen without the major source of energy that iis oil.

So, let’s say it again once more with feeling: hydrogen is not an energy source.

Or we might just all be wiped out by an asteroid hitting the Earth. It’s happened before to other species who thought they were the dominant force on the Earth (I’m talking to you dinosaurs).

I mean if an asteroid can pass the Earth within the Moon’s orbit without us being anywhere near prepared to deflect it away from the Earth, what’s to happen when a slightly bigger one comes even closer and we’re still not prepared?

From USATODAY.com: “Get ready for some record gas prices”:

Oil prices hit their highest level in more than 13 years Wednesday, a landmark that makes record gasoline prices inevitable.

"People don't need to panic. We're not going to run out."

Yeah, we’re not going to run out... yet.

But [the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration] predicts prices are headed higher. Oil accounts for nearly half the cost of gas.

... higher energy prices still threaten to take some steam out of the U.S. economy...

Why? Well think about it. Most of our transportation energy (cars, trucks, etc.) comes from gasoline. When gas prices go up, so does the cost of transporting goods and material. When the cost of transporting goods and materials go up, so does the cost of those goods and materials. And when those prices go up, less is purchased, companies make less money, and they start to consider layoffs or other cost-cutting measures.

Now take this same idea, and think about what will happen to the economy when prices really go up as the world’s oil supply nears its end in the coming decades.

More Peak Oil news from The Christian Science Monitor: Has global oil production peaked? Here’s some key things to note from the article:

• Production has peaked for more than 50 oil-producing nations, including the US (1970) and Britain (1999). China, second to the US in the consumption of oil, was a net exporter of oil until five years ago.
• The rate of discovery of worldwide oil reserves, after declining for 40 years, has slowed to a trickle. In 2000, there were 16 large discoveries of oil, eight in 2001, three in 2002, and none last year, notes James Meyer, director of the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre in London.
• The world has used up about 23 percent of its total available petroleum resource.
• China expects a quintupling of its oil needs by 2030.

As you can see, the world will run out of oil. As you can hopefully also see, this means that civilization is up for drastic changes once our major source of energy is gone.

The article also tries to make the situation sound not as gloomy as it really is, but the fact is that, you need to make it sound just as bad as it can be (the worst case scenario) so that people will pay attention. I mean, do we really want to take a chance with our civilization? Do we really want to gamble on whether or not catastrophe will happen? Shouldn’t we already be preparing for the worst? The end of the world’s oil supply is approaching like a hurricane. Shouldn’t we be worrying about it and preparing for what could happen instead of waiting till the last minute to see if it’s really going to hit us?

More technology worth investing in: Red wine mends solar cells. This is just what we need, more methods to make solar cells cheaper and more efficient.