OneAndOneIs2

There's another post on slashdot about global warming. Not that that's rare, altho unusually I do encourage you to read the article (New Scientist) because some of it is actually quite thought-provoking. Like "Plant and animal life puts 440gt on CO2 into the air, humans put 26.5gt into it. And CO2 only accounts for maybe 20% of the greenhouse effect. But humans are still the big cause of too-fast global warming." - if this doesn't make you appreciate the complexities of the subject and want to know more, nothing will.

But the rare occurrence I mention is that a link from one of the /. posts on the topic actually made me laugh. It was to this cartoon and whilst the art isn't up to much, I have to say the punchline cracked me up.

By pure coincidence, I was looking at the website of one of the UK's better-known politicians, Boris Johnson - It was linked from a Register story on an electric car - and on one of the forum threads on his website, where they're discussing global warming (as all politicians do these days) there's a line that a lot of environmentalists and green politicians would benefit from keeping in mind, IMHO.

It's on the subject of the efforts made to cut down on or eliminate our use of fossil fuels:
the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stone

We stopped using stone for everything because we found better replacements. Similarly, if they really want people to stop using fossil fuels, they'll do a hell of a lot better if they offer an alternative that people actually want.

Tired old example tho it may be: We're happy to use low-energy lightbulbs because they're cheaper, longer-lasting, and just as good at doing their job as the conventional ones. Ergo we buy them and consume less resources, and not because we've been hammered with "The end is nigh" messages. And taxes.