Why This Blog?

The purpose of this blog is to provide me with an outlet to express my own personal opinion regarding green issues. If it is biased by anything, it is by my own personal thoughts and viewpoints. Politically, I am middle of the road, more of an independent than anything else. I like to see things from both sides before forming an opinion. Over the past couple of years, I have listened to fight over global warming and climate change. I have tried to listen carefully and unbiasedly to both sides of the debate as I have formed my opinion on the matter.

As with all politics, the waves of extremism from both sides frustrate me and are a huge turn-off. I don't like listening to people who won't take the time to consider a contrary point of view or even listen to the other side of a debate. I much prefer compromise -- being willing to meet in the middle and move things forward. To me, compromise is the essence of progress.

So, when it comes to climate change, I have had to ask myself which side, if any, would lead to the most good. What if I decided not to believe in climate change, and then climate change is discovered to be true? Or conversely, what if I decided to believe in climate change, and then climate change is discovered to be false? Which position would lead to most harm, or the most good?

After thinking about the issue for some time, I have come to this conclusion: What harm is there in accepting that climate change exists and taking steps to limit or stop it? Sure, it will require that we change the way we do things. It will require new laws and regulations, as well as new advances in technology. It will require us to rethink the way we live and work. But, I only see good coming from this. I see less pollution, less dependence on antiquated technologies, less dependence on foreign oil, more energy independence, more opportunities for innovation and, in the end, more progress.

So, what if we accept that climate change exists, take steps to stop it and then find out that it was all a hoax? Well, then we can look back and see that at the very least, we've helped improve air and water quality, we've reduced our dependence on fossil fuels, we've become more energy independent both as a nation and as individuals, and we've left the planet better for our children. How could this be a bad thing?

On the contrary, if we decide to take the opposite approach -- believing that climate change is not happening and continuing with the status quo, and then later down the road find out that climate change did indeed exist, where does that leave us? It leaves us with a planet that is even harder to fix than before. It leaves us with more pollution, less natural resources and a much bigger problem for our children.

I have decided that the safest approach is to believe that climate change is happening and that it is caused by humans. I believe that this being the case, we should take steps to reduce the amount of CO2 we put into the air and invest in technologies that will enable us to lead cleaner, more responsible and less polluting lives. The changes that need to happen won't happen over night and they won't happen without compromise. Both sides will need to make some concessions. Both sides need to be reasonable, REASONABLY GREEN.