Consider for a moment that an asteroid is about to strike the earth. Think about it for a second. Has it been a second? Do you have it in mind? Here, let me help: It’s twice the size of the moon and really rocky looking. Looks like it would hurt if you punched it. Make your knuckles bleed, even. Okay, you’ve fully considered this asteroid? Now, understand that it’s going to wallop our planet in two days. We can see it coming, a bright, growing ball of fire, visible day and night, headed right for us. Dogs howl, cats mewl, grandma calmly asserts that Judgment Day is nigh. Now imagine that we’re told that all we have to do to avert calamity (and judgment!) is BLOW–as hard as we can, all of us, all six billion Earth inhabitants, at the same time.

Don’t you think we’d organize somehow, across the globe immediately to make sure that every last one of us went PUFFFFFFF! or WHOOOF! or however people blow in foreign lands, at the given time? Damned straight we would. We’d have billions of people, from the Congo to Iceland, from Wichita to Istanbul, puffing like mad to blow that asteroid off course.

I know it’s silly to talk about Read the rest of this entry »

READ ON: The Big Break

Not that there are any global warming denialists (is that a word? is now, as a word is merely an utterance than conveys a meaning), but, my oh my, are we no paying attention or not?

It’s often said that humans need to see the speeding train bearing down upon them before they take action. See this picture? There’s an engine and caboose in there, as well as a whole load o’ freight cars in there if you take a close look.