My mother said to me on Monday morning that, "This global warming thing really scares me!" I asked her why and she answered, "Because I think it's happening now!" She was quite concerned. I gave her my blog from January 24th, ( http://ourbreadoflife.blogspot.com/2007/01/we-are-all-hypocritical-sometimes-but.html) and she read it and said she was still pretty concerned about it. (laughing here)

That's fair, I've only had a single opportunity to talk with her about it, whereas the major news media, (she gets ABC, CBS, NBC and Public Television) has been drumming on it for years. She also reads Time and Newsweek, but I really don't, so I haven't seen their take on the whole thing. I can guess though. The whole Climate Change issue has really been ramped up in the media lately. Some would say that's because it's such an important issue. I would debate that. I think this has more to do with politicians jumping on the global warming bandwagon to let their constituents know by the next election that they really care about it.

Most young voters these days are swallowing up liberal rhetoric. I remember the months before my eighteenth birthday preceding an election and how my high school friends and I were just hammered with liberal viewpoints through shows that catered to younger viewers. The hosts of those shows were younger and pretty clueless themselves. Don't get me wrong, there are issues about which I share complete agreement with some of my liberal friends. Global warming isn't one of them.

Now, it seems there is a new book in the works for children by the producer of "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore's documentary. "The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming," has been acquired by Scholastic, Inc.. The authors, Laurie David and Cambria Gordon are hoping to publish in September of this year. Their stated goal is to inform school age ( 8 years-old and up) children so that they can, "understand why global warming happens." Ummm, a lot of folks would say it hasn't happened yet, so wouldn't that make this theory?

Calling it a comprehensive resource for young readers, Scholastic said that the hope is that kids can look to this book to understand "why global warming happens and how we can work together to stop it." So, not only is the publisher hoping to merely sell a ton of copies, but they are putting their considerable influence behind it as one of the largest publishers of children's books on the planet.

In a press release, Scholastic describes the book by saying, "Irreverent and entertaining, and packed with essential facts and suggestions on how to effect change,'Down to Earth' offers a message of hope,"

"Irreverent." Why would I expect anything better than that? But I'm sure glad that this irreverent literary venture offers a message of hope. Hope is great, as in I hope that the questionable science and the enormous amount of guesswork that has gone into the further popularizing of this movement doesn't cost our nation trillions of dollars, slow production down, curtail a lot of people's personal freedoms and put a lot of other people out of work, ohhhh----except for the many thousands of new government watchdog jobs it will probably create.

The United Nations is going to come out Friday with a report from their Panel on Climate Change saying that global warming is no longer a future concern, but is now an urgent reality, and that our air and water are being warmed up right now, and that the cause is without doubt, humanity's pollution of the planet. The Panel last updated the world in 2001, and no doubt they're going to wow the public with new measurements and new examples of warming and its effects since then.

If you haven't investigated this, I would encourage it, and I would encourage the gathering of facts from independent sources. "What? They United Nations is not a good source of information?" someone might be asking. #hjphruawetjpjtsdliagpoidgoh Oh pardon me, I knocked the keyboard off the desk while laughing.

There's nothing wrong with conserving energy and fuels. I drove my car less than three thousand miles last year. I walked to work when schedules permitted, and I do some recycling. Admittedly, I could do more, but I can remember all of the nonsense I was told in the years preceding January 1st 2001, or as it was known, "Y2K." Yeah, Y2K. Remember that? One of the guys I worked with at that time was really stressed about it and I tried to tell him it was a total boondoggle. I knew several people who were stressed about Y2K, but not the guy at the local hardware/surplus store. He was lovin' it. He sold barrels for food storage, generators, rope, etc.. and had one customer who had spent over $40,000 "preparing" for the eventual collapse of society due to the Y2K bug.

Believe me, there are quite a lot of folks whose concern over global warming is less than genuine, but who stand to gain a tremendous amount from this "problem," and it will be another boondoggle that will make many people long for the days of, well.....Y2K.