Gore-El's warning

"When Earth began experiencing a series of global warming events, Gore-El investigated, and soon discovered that Earth’s atmosphere was greatly unstable, and would eventually cause floods, mega-storms, and an unstable climate, taking the entire planet and its populace into chaos. Gore-El tried to convince the members of Earth's ruling body, the U.S. Congress, of this impending disaster, and urged steps be taken to lessen the impact of the climate crisis. However, the Congress was dismissive of Gore-El's findings, and refused to comply with his plan."

Ok, ok, so it’s a stretch, right? But I’ve been writing for nearly two decades now that I, myself often feel like Jor-El must have (albeit he’s a fictional character from the planet Krypton!) when he tried to raise the alarm about the threat to his planet. Back in 1992 when The World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity first appeared awareness of the planet’s plight was not exactly high. In fact, activists who are now firmly onboard the global warming bandwagon were nowhere to be found on the issue back then. However, Al Gore was not one of them. His book, “Earth in the Balance” was published in 1992. It was from that book I first saw the frightening photo of the dried-up Aral Sea.

Yesterday, March 21, 2007, the first day of spring, Al Gore took his climate crisis concerns to the U.S. Congress. Thankfully, most senators and congressional representatives were more attentive than their fictional counter-parts in the Hall of Wisdom on the planet Krypton. However, most wisdom aside, The U.S. congress has its own version of the derisive and doubtful Vad-Ar the Elder in the person of U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe. The Republican senator from Oklahoma has nearly built his career on trashing the science of global warming, calling it the hoax of the century. Yesterday Gore and his detractors had their "Hall of Wisdom" moment. "It is my perspective that your global warming alarmist pronouncements are now and have always been filled with inaccuracies and misleading statements," Inhofe said. "You're not just off a little, you're totally wrong," Texas Republican Joe Barton said. "Those who believe all his garbage are going to be excited to death," said Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), "and the rest of us are going to ignore it." Unlike Jor-El of Superman fame, Gore did not despair and return home to save his own. Instead he pressed on: "There is a sense of hope in this country that this United States Congress will rise to the occasion and present meaningful solutions to this crisis," Gore said. "Our world faces a true planetary emergency. I know the phrase sounds shrill, and I know it's a challenge to the moral imagination.". Let’s see if Washington can meet the challenge.

(Happy birthday, Jack!)