The first point was about "climate change" without all the political baggage being carried around. It is happening. Can't stop it.

But the second half of my rant was about "Climate Change" with the political baggage. We might be able to slow it down.

In the polical battle, I see an underlying belief that mankind is responsible for massive changes to how our planet works, that change is bad and that we can do something about it.

The inherently greedy position is that mankind needs to act NOW to do everything possible to make sure that our species survives as long as is utterly possible.

I'm okay with that position. I am a what I refer to as a "human racist" after all. I firmly believe in the genocide of certain species (example: Polio myelitis). I strongly believe that we should preserve less dangerous species because who knows what we will learn from them next year? Or in 1000 years?

What drives me crazy are the people that stand up and shout conclusions ("we need more nuclear!" vs. "we need less nuclear!") without THINKING first, and without accepting that we're going to screw it up. Pull trigger, pull gun from holster, aim gun ... oh, hey, is that my toe over there?

It also drives me crazy when some of the "save the planet" ideas are ones that sabotage our ability to defend ourselves ... all it takes is one group of less-than-"enlightened" folk that continue to use oil and that decide to conquer the rest of us.

Back to my train of thought.

Is mankind damaging the environment? We have evidence of large-scale changes to ecosystems and climate all around us. Look at the pictures of the Aral Sea-turning-puddle. Read the warnings about eating fish caught in the Great Lakes. Look at the before-and-after maps of the loss of the rain forest.

But mankind is not the only cause of this kind of change. The Sahara uses to be a much more lush, green place. Fossils of sea creatures are found on mountaintops. That coal we burn used to be plant matter. None of that change is our fault.

Do we need to act now? Maybe. If we don't, but we need to - it's curtains for us. If we do, but we didn't then we will never know. Unless, of course, if we do, and the act of doing is what does us in.

Panic is the natural state of some people. Calls about how we're running out of oil have been around since before I was born. Doom- and gloom- sayers are doing as much disservice to the rest of us as the boy who cried wolf. And many of them earn their living from gloom-saying.