Election Reflection

I must say that I was quite pleased with the voter turnout for this election. However i am pretty disappointed at how some people handled the results. I was looking at Facebook and could not help but feel somewhat disgusted at some of the things that I saw. People were bashing Obama more than ever with some going as far as to say they would leave the country and even making racial remarks towards him. It really was the most immature thing that I have seen in a very long time. I must however say that not everything I saw was bad. There were some individuals who stepped up there maturity levels and I really appreciate that they did. The most important one I saw was from a very conservative man. He said that while he is conservative and wanted McCain to win, he will support our President because it is our civil duty to do so. The remarks like this really restored some of my faith in the United States political system.

Preventative Measures

I think that it is time we treat global warming like it is happening until we receive scientific data that says that it is not. Here is a link of the top 50 ways that you can help to reduce your supposed affect on global warming.

Self Analysis

I believe that my way of thinking about global warming has changed over the course of this project. I am naturally a very contradictory person who usually sees most things in a scientific perspective. This project almost forced me to step outside of that comfort zone. Before I ever really thought about global warming I just assumed it to be a truth because of what I had learned in school. Now I realize just how incomplete of a science it actually is. We have practically no data about global warming at all and to be honest this is what made this topic so confusing for me. It was so hard to make post on a topic that had practically no data to completely support any claim that I made. But it at the same time forced me to actually develop my own opinion about the topic instead of just relying on others as i had done before. I also think that by responding to other people's post I became more aware of many political issues that i would not have noticed otherwise. The project also forced me to take on a more active attitude about global warming. I understand that it is a very complex topic but I do not believe that we, as a society, should just sit and wait for more scientific evidence. We must act soon to at least make an attempt to try to prevent the possible effects of global warming. I think that in this situation we should hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Implications

This is in my opinion the most important issue right now. Unfortunately it is not being treated as such. Global warming has the potential to affect everything about our way of life. The temperature increase would melt the ice caps and cause massive flooding in some regions. The new increase in temperature could also cause hurricanes to have a much more massive effect since they thrive in warm water situations. The new change in weather would also result in the possible extinction of many species of animals, such as the polar bear, that thrive in cold temperatures. There would be droughts in some areas and floods in others. Not to mention the destruction of some sea life and things like the coral reef. People should realize that the threat of global warming is far too great to waste time bickering over if it is caused by humans or not. We should do whatever is necessary to preserve the life of our planet before it gets too late and there is nothing that can be done to save us. I think that this issue should also be a driving force for finding better sources of alternative fuels. Regardless of the causes of global warming burning fossil fuels are putting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and fossil fuels are a non-renewable resource and will not last forever.

Theory Post

The climate of the earth is increasing. This is common knowledge at this point. So why are people still fighting? In the political world most politicians believe that human activites have had a great impact on the Earth. This however, is not where the debate is. The problem seems to be in the scientific community. It seems that half of the scientists believe humans have mostly caused global warming while the other half believe that this is just a part of the natural fluctuations of the Earth's temperature. Both sides could be right but there is no evidence to solidify either sides stance on the issue. I understand that each side believes they are right, but this affects the entire world and not just the pride of a few scientists. I believe that both sides should come together to try to get more data on global warming because the rift in the scientific community has only created a rift in the quality of data about it. This is unacceptable. The possible risks of global warming more than warrant preventative actions being taken. If we try to prevent things from getting any worse and it turns out that global warming isn't caused by humans, then what have we really given up? But on the other hand if we do nothing, we could end up seeing the death of our planet because of the stubborness of some scientists who would rather be right than try to compromise and think about what is better for the world overall.

Banks

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen has a plan. He wants to inject 250 billion dollars into banks. This will help the banks and should help Americans. About half of that money will go to large banks. The other half will go to smaller banks. Hopefully this will trickle down and help both banks and citizens. If successful then banks should start to lend more money. There is a lot of controversy about this. I don not understand why. Maybe someone could tell me what is so bad about this plan.

Just some links

For this post I decided that I would simply provide some links for and against humans causing global warming. I think that information like this is crucial in helping each person develop his or her own individual opinion about global warming and it's causes.
What Could be causing Global Warming
Global Warming fast facts
33 Facts about Global Warming