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Our responsibility to our children and those who come after us is sacred and we must discharge our responsibility.
And the good news is the changes we need to make are ones that will improve the quality of life. They’re things
that we should be doing anyway.
‘My fellow Americans,’ Mr Green Al Gore told the Oscar audience in the US and all over the world (Gary Gentile,
Associated Press, 26 Feb, cbsnews.com), ‘people all over the world: We need to solve the climate crisis.’ Global
warming is ‘the overriding world challenge of our time,’ he said. ‘I really hope the decision by the Academy to
honor the work by Director David Guggenheim and these producers will convince people who did not go see it to
see the movie and learn about the climate crisis and become a part of the solution.’ The producers – Lawrence
Bender, Scott Burns, Laurie David (Wikipedia) – have become part of the solution while we’re still part of the
problem.
To those who can’t manage their global
doubts, or global indifference, I suggest this:
First, look at whatever you’re doing (thinking
locally) and then think long and hard about
what it’s doing outside of you (thinking
globally). What about freedom? you
Americans may ask. You’re free to decide
what to do next. I only hope you appreciate
the fact that this time you can’t manage to
evade your responsibility in the exercise of
your freedom. And why is that? Freedom is
like this: You are free to swing your arm
short of my nose (I borrowed that from Dean
Ricardo Pascual of the College of Law of
the University of the Philippines, something
I memorized more than 40 years ago). You
are free to ride your car and throw your CO 2
(acting locally) short of my nose (acting
globally).
In case you didn’t know, carbon dioxide (CO 2
)
is the most infamous of the man-caused
exhausts. Of the 6 major greenhouse gas
emissions that contribute to global warming,
carbon dioxide leads all the rest: methane,
nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, HFCs and
PFCs (Larry West 2007, environment.about.com). And the United States is still leading all the rest of the countries
with her contribution of 5 trillion tonnes of CO 2
a year, and all 16 countries of the European Union with their total of
6 trillion tonnes (West 2007). This should not be the case.
An Inconvenient Truth