Sunday, August 3, 2014

My Response to Paul Ryan Remarks on Climate Change

greenhouse effect
© James Steidl - Fotolia.com #1248622
According to several articles online, Paul Ryan has admitted that the climate is changing. He doesn't see why we should do something to try to stop the warming. Admittedly, having a Republican admit that there is global warming is a step forward. But to claim that any and all attempts to control the warming is a --I assume he regards it as such--tax scam.  (MY words, not his)

In my view, he misses the crucial concern over global warming. Evolution will occur at increased rates due to the stress of climate change. This concept is anathema to the Creationists of the Conservatives, I know, but it is the fear of those who accept modern science as knowing how the world works.

By the way, MRSA is a prime example of evolution in action. Influenza, HIV and ebola are constantly evolving, but viruses are not living entities, just prime examples for modeling how evolution can occur in living species.

A cornfield near Waco, TX, years ago
Consider the idea that many plants and some animals will perish if the carbon dioxide levels change by even just 1-3 % points. Photosynthesis in corn, for example, shifts to favor an alternate pathway. Some plants cannot make the shift successfully. Expect huge evolutionary changes with increased warming, shifting of climate regions, and increased carbon dioxide.

The age of the dinosaurs demonstrates the speciation that occurs with these changes,
as do other epochs and eras. HOW WILL HUMANS CHANGE? The immediate results of the current warming shift will be economic, devastatingly so. But the long-term changes will be biological.

We are headed into a scary future for humankind. REMEMBER, past climate changes resulted in new species, extinctions, and a total change in the ecosystems. Yes, climate change has always occurred. Man's worry is what effect the current change will have on mankind and our culture. The earth as a biosphere will go on, but will we?

Allowing religious conservatives--fundamentalists--to control policy is frightening to me who believes in the correctness of views espoused and accepted by modern science. I really do fear a return to the Dark Ages where only prayer--and midwives and alchemists--could cure disease and only one leader had any say over how the masses lived.  Our entire culture is headed for a massive change where freedoms will by stymied and lives ruled by senseless corporate greed and religious control--where Big Brother is the church spy who tells on you and the punishment is excommunication or stoning.

Biblical Law looks just like Sharia Law, People. Ask the Inquisition or the Salem Witch Hunters. They were good Christian folk, too. So were every Christian nation that sincerely prayed for victory as they fought each other in countless battles and wars.

Only the true believers win? Ask that of each team in a football game when both sides sincerely pray for victory.

Get real!