Oh brother. I just finished reading the latest edition of Mother Jones magazine ("In the current climate, and facing the present danger, we do not find our political orientation to be inconsistent with our devotion to fact. We're better positioned to honor objective fact because we aren't insulted by the charge that we're 'liberal media'"). The May/June issue has a special feature on global warming and it has gotten me *so* worked up! I am positively peeved after reading Some Like It Hot, which looks at the different non-profits (over 40) funded by ExxonMobile to convince people that global warming is a big lie and has nothing to do with human fault. What the hell? I've been so ticked all weekend that I've done additional online research. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's conclusions that the "burning of fossil fuels is causing significant shifts in the earth's climate" are supported by a slew of scientific organizations: the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, and the National Academy of Sciences. Back in the magazine, D. James Baker, a former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (not an organization created by liberal media) says, "There is better scientific consensus on this than on any other issue I know- except maybe Newton's second law of dynamics."

And yet, in the background ExxonMobile and the American Petroleum Institute continue to sponsor crap scientists & journalists to write that there's nothing to the whole global warming hoax. Obviously, corporations need to protect their bottom line, but there are other ways to do that than supporting the destruction of the, eh... OUR Environment?! Other oil companies: Shell, Texaco, British Petroleum and car companies like Ford, GM, and DaimlerChrysler all bailed out of a coalition that was promoting skepticism and spreading doubt.

Ah, it just makes me really mad. And yes, I sent a letter to my government representatives, care of the organization Environmental Defense. I also signed their petition to support the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act. You can read a summary of the act written by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

Finally, I am dissappointed because Michael Crichton, one of my favorite creators of books which function as perfect inflight entertainment, is a leader in the movement to confuse and politicize the science regarding global warming. His latest book, State of Fear, is about ecoterrorists who go around try to win lawsuits based on faulty science supporting global warming and rising sea levels. I will certainly not be reading the new book, nor supporting him in the future. The Pew Center did a very clear summary of the science and issues in his novel. Scarily enough though, according to Mother Jones, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, chair of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, recommended the novel (fiction, mind you!) as "required reading" to a group assembled at a congressional briefing. I find it pretty disturbing that regardless of political perspective, a fictional pop thriller is the document to rally around regarding the critical state of global warming.