Global Warming, Global Cooling: Transormation of a President by Chelle Stockman

Global Warming, Global Cooling: Transformation of a President

By Chelle Stockman

To listen to those who would challenge the awarding or even the significance of the Nobel Peace Prize, especially now that Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have received this coveted and unexpected award, reminds me of the strife naysayers perpetuated upon the likes of Johannes Kepler, Galileo, and other such notables who turned out to be correct in their assertions and in their delivery of facts.  It would seem that people through out history are afraid of truths, even when these truths are obvious and make better sense; because that would mean they would have to change, that they are so afraid of transformation or are too comfortable with life as they know it to honor impending change, that they'd rather decry the scientists or messengers of "new" thinking and claim them to be enemies of the church and enemies of humanity. 

Al Gore may not be a Kepler, but nonetheless, he has provoked a major change, especially in President Bush who was a vocal critic of global warming trends.  When Gore and others presented Bush with the facts that signify not only global warming but support the theory that every action has an equal and opposite reaction and what that means for life as we know it, Bush sobered and began to forge new policy that is available through the NASA websites as well as the Whitehouse.gov website.

President Bush was transformed, quieted and serious; this new President began to understand what Climate Change Facts really meant and indeed, when in totality you view these changes and the supporting evidence, you would have to become quieted.

Yes, we have global warming and yes, the earth seems to get cooler at times.  Why?  First, the amount of carbons in the atmosphere keeps the temperatures near earth warmer for longer periods of time because it doesn't allow the heat to escape quite as fast into the upper atmosphere. The evidence for this begins with a more plush vegetation in areas of the world, and secondly the melting of large ice mass such as glaciers and even polar caps which leads to rising tides and warmer oceanic temperatures.

The equal and opposite reaction would be the amount of solar radiation that is lost to life on earth because of this protective barrier.  The Sun is getting larger as it ages which means the radiation reaching the Earth's surface should be drastically increasing, but instead the opposite is true due to the carbon barrier.  The Sun's rays are not able to bounce the water molecules back into the atmosphere more consistently which in turn means we have less consistent patterns of rain.  This is the most simplest way I have of stating the problems we face.  To better understand the arguments that have helped to recently change the President's attitude (as well as leaders from 16 other countries), there is a very good documentary that is available for a low cost on DVD.  It is by NOVA and is called Dimming the Sun.  That documentary presents the arguments and proofs not only for global warming trends, but also what some might call global cooling trends which are really more the about of the disappearance of global radiation. 

The scientists are dismayed because if we take measures to slow the process of one, it would dangerously accelerate the other and too much of either trends means the extinction of our species as well as other species.  It is this grim picture for all humanity that has caused President Bush to turn to NASA.  In 2002, Bush began to redistribute purpose and funding from one area of NASA research to another, as well as create policy that would lay out future goals.  He also appointed a few new faces to certain high posts that had been held by others who were reliable.  This had a slight but quiet backlash from some, but since the community of scientists and astronomers is tiny when compared the average community of blue collar workers, few people were ever alerted that something was happening beneath the surface.  Our war policies and the current Iraq War kept most of us occupied and unless you were in the habit of reading science or space journals, it would have been easy to miss. But Bush, got it and has since purposed himself to get humans out into the Solar System as soon as possible.

(Currently we squawk about outsourcing our jobs and the manufacturing of goods to other countries; just imagine when the outsourcing occurs off this Earth.  Say what?? "What's this crazy woman talking about?")

Some of Bush's concerns can be found in his speech titled Vision for Space Exploration.  This speech outlined new policy and led Congress in December of 2005, to pass the NASA Authorization Act which can also be found on the Whitehouse Website. Another speech of importance is Bush's Renewed Spirit of Discovery.  I urge you all to read these speeches and if you do, you'll want to see more.  I call this path the infant stage of new direction for human life. 

Bush appointee, Michael Griffin became NASA's 11th Administrator and addressed NASA in the Langley Colloquium Series/Sigma Public Lecture Series back in October of 2006.  His most telling part of the series was titled Space Exploration: Filling Up the Canvas. It simply outlines our future agenda regarding the continuance of our species in the Solar System.

Mr. Griffin compares our exploration policy to that which Thomas Jefferson laid out and Lewis and Clark carried out. To make this comparison, he quoted President Bush. "The fundamental goal of this vision is to advance U.S. scientific, economic, and security interests through a robust space exploration program."  Mr. Griffin then goes on to explain what each meant.  He corroborated the need to to adhere to a space exploration program by citing the truths professionals such as Stephen Hawking and Harrison Schmitt put forth through the NASA Advisory Council and the University of Cambridge.  The fundamental truth Bush spoke of began with Earth's history of extinction events, mentioning at least 5 such events; the last occurring some 65 million years ago which ended the Cretaceous period, or the age of dinosaurs.  Mr. Griffin concludes that portion of his speech regarding what is meant by security this way. "So in the end, human expansion into our solar system is fundamentally about the survival of the species, about ensuring better odds for our survival through the promulgation of our species.  There is no more fundamental measure of "security".

Of course, there are economic reasons which he also laid out.  I urge you all to read his speech along with President Bush's speeches.

So if some of you folks are confused as to why Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change should be honored with the Nobel Peace Prize when people are still in their infant stage of arguing the effects of global warming, I think after you read Mr. Griffin's speech as well as Bush's speeches to NASA, you won't be confused anymore.