Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Global Warming? The UK Times says "No."

I'm very relieved to see an article that says we may be wrong about global warming. I have a problem with hearing about news like that. When I learned, when I was in the second grade, about the rain forests being cut down and destroying life as we know it, I couldn't sleep for weeks because I was so worried about it. When I was in the sixth grade I learned about global warming and I worried for a month about the ice caps. When I was in the tenth grade, I learned about all kinds of diseases and the thousands of ways you can get them.
By the end of that particular lesson, I was ready to wear rubber gloves and a space suit and never shake another hand for as long as I lived. My biology teacher didn't help by ending the lesson with, "And remember students, we're all the carrier of some deadly disease. All we have to do is make sure we don't find a mate with the same genes as that so the disease doesn't spread."
Thanks for the comfort, Teach. (And if you think I'm kidding about her saying that, you're so wrong.)
So I've always been a worrier, and I can't help it. When people bring up global warming, I start to go into panic mode: I start looking for ways out of the conversation, my breathing gets shallower, my mind starts darting to random subjects in efforts to get off the topic--In short, I freak. I don't like talking about it, because I can't do anything about it.
But there's good news. According to the TimesOnline (article found on Holly's writing diary--thanks, Mrs. Lisle) our world's rising temperature may not be from man-made green house gasses at all but something entirely different. It also suggests that the planet may not actually have rising temperatures at all. I let out such a sigh of relief--I nearly blew my windows out.
For thinking for so long that I might have to take a canoe to school in the future, I welcome this news. It may be wrong, it may be spot on, but it gives me a little peace of mind.
How about you?

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