It is interesting to see the change in the nature of the debate on Global Warming -- some of this change is also a reflection of my change in thinking as well I have come to realize. I think like many issues it started as a political issue (though it always had solid scientific support) was quickly adopted by a lot of left-wing groups and therefore almost by default rejected by those on the right wing.

For myself it reflects my own conflicted feelings I have had on the topic. I have always loved the environment, growing up in New Zealand I loved the out doors, hate pollution and the like. I would also say I saw first hand the effects of the hole in the ozone layer as burn times in 90’s in New Zealand got down to 10 minutes or less (while the temperature had barely increased). My own grandfather could tell stories of abundant fish and clear waters where murky waters now where. We hated the Japanese “wall of death” fishing fleets the stripped the south pacific of fish as mass production techniques were applied to mining the oceans of its resources.

I also remember when I was about 7 or 8 having to watch a movie on the killing of little white seals (a Green Peace movie) every week for almost a year (we had a radical teacher). I was full of hate for those sealers and passionate about my belief in the environment. However, about 10 years later I found out that movie had been faked by Green Peace the hunters never did club the baby seals to death like that Green Peace placed the ends above the means and hired hunters to kill them like that for the emotional reaction it made in people like myself. I despised I had been lied to more than anything else and I grew to distrust everything they said and claimed.

It was easy then as I wandered down the pathway of the right to somehow believe their rhetoric that the claims of massive environmental destruction was simply scientists looking for funding, and politicians looking for a cause. I remember one of my friends in Texas telling me “It is arrogant to think that we are capable of destroying this planet so quickly.” When you looked at Al Gore’s first book and how fundamentally inaccurate it was, you could make the extension that it was a political platform for him and/or a money generating proposition for him now.

However, I was wrong. I let the passions of my youth cloud my judgment and I never rightly divided the truth in front of me. Not that I am a guardrail to guardrail easily persuaded person as I am not, rather I think the politics of both parties now disgust me equally and I tend to have solidified my thinking a little more towards the center.

Likewise my own research on the topic of global warming clearly tells me there is a huge problem those out to our left on the political spectrum were right, those to the right were wrong. The answer however doesn’t belong in legislation alone but everyone standing up and addressing the problem.

For me the movie An Inconvenient Truth shows a much more mature and pragmatic Al Gore (see it on CinemaNow http://www.cinemanow.com/Buy/Movies/1007,0,5,,1,2,0/1001,0,5,,1,2,109002/An-Inconvenient-Truth.htm) and I feel much more respect for him and indeed thankful that he has continued the process of research and education on the issue.

I would also say hopefully my friends will listen to me as I change my opinions on this topic and realize that this IS a serious issue. I stop therefore and ponder where my change of thinking came from and realized it was from a friend of Jesse’s and mine whom I respect greatly that took the time to education me and made me reconsider my preconceived ideas.

Having now spent the last 12 months studying globalization and the rapid growth of China (which I think is a great thing) I am very aware of the facts of the pressures we are putting on natural resources. This is NOT a doom and gloom speech, this is just simply dealing with facts and raising the questions of what are we going to do about it.

There are a number of great articles that have come out recently that are worth reading. One is in Business2.0 – here are some quotes.

1. Global Warming: Carbon dioxide makes up nearly 80 percent of all greenhouse gases. More than a quarter of that CO2 comes from electrical power plants.
2. Oil Dependency: This is not just a national-security issue: Transportation is second only to electricity generation as the contributor to global warming, accounting for roughly a fifth of carbon emissions. And transportation-generated emissions rank as the fastest-growing source of green-house gases in China, India and other developing nations.
3. Hunger and Malnutrition: More thank 850 million people line in a state of hunger. Malnutrition kills more people annually than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. The majority of the hungry live in the developing world, especially in India and sub-Saharan Africa. Children suffer disproportionately: The United Nations says a child dies from the complication of malnutrition every five seconds. Bleakest of all, the number of humans enduring famine has not changed as the rest of the world has grown richer and the food supply more plentiful.
4. Dirty Air: Most of southern Asia is enveloped by a vast cloud of smog 2 miles thick – a toxic stew of industrial pollutants, carbon monoxide, and the particles of soot from millions or rural cooking fires.
5. Dirty Water: More than a billion people lack access to drinkable water. Theirs is teeming with bacteria and viruses or polluted with raw sewage. The result: Nearly 5,000 children die each day from waterborne diseases.
6. Overfishing: Overfishing is severely depleting wild ocean fish stocks and threatening the commercial fishing industry. The number of fish caught annually is declining, with a recent study projecting that the world’s commercially harvested fish populations could collapse by 2048.
7. Epidemics: Avian flu, SARS, HIV/AIDS, and other diseases have the potential to wipe out entire populations. But early detection and quick response are tough in many developing countries, where more than 12 million die annually from infection diseases.
8. Drug Resistant Infections: Bacterial infections that were once easily treated with antibiotics like penicillin have gained frightening resistance during the past few decades – despite the mistaken assurance by the U.S. surgeon general in 1969 that “the war on infection disease has been won.” In 1974 just 2 percent of the most common form of staph infections found in hospitals were resistant to the common antibiotic methicillin; today more than 60 percent are impervious to it. This year nearly 2 million Americans will get bacterial infections while in a hospital; 90,000 of them will die.
9. Waste Disposal: We’re building bigger and bigger mountains of increasingly toxic garbage. The United States alone annually produces 1.4 billion tons of waste, the majority of which winds up in landfills. Recycling is a noble goal, but not everything can be recycled, and many places lack the infrastructure for it anyway.

The Economist Magazine (my favorite) has some great research in recent additions on the pure availability of natural resources. When China is absorbing enough resources to build a city the size of Houston every month you can imagine the effect that has on certain commodities (like copper which went up 300% last year, yes to correct a little earlier this year but you get point). Data clearly points to concerns in the availability at current production levels for many of these resources in the next 10-20 years (not a long way away).

This is not all bad news its merely a collection of facts, and I have not even begun to walk through all the arguments and details pointed out by Al Gore in his movie referenced above. Yet there are solutions developing the fundamental fact is that the core driver of capitalism in once sense if ever increasing efficiency not just in labor but in any resource we use. So if I lay out the challenge to my friends on the right to study these facts for themselves to see we have serious issues, I equally challenge my friends on the left to look at where the solutions to these issue may lie – and the result are likely not where they would expect. The economist magazine also has a great article about how Wal Mart is helping to drive down the cost of eco-friendly light bulbs with GE on renegotiating their purchase deals to drive costs down. Such a move (everyone seems to like to target Wal Mart as an evil empire) can do a significant amount to help the environment.

I will write more later but my thesis is that it doesn’t matter your political or religious beliefs being responsible custodians of the planet we inhabit is a just and good thing. Those on the right need to stop being so arrogant as to think we cannot screw it up (because we can and we are) and those on the left need to stop thinking the fixing the environment means the end of capitalism and/or that this agenda is something they are the sole owners of.

The economics of a global economy demand a change in the way we think of managing the resources of the very globe this economy rests upon.