The doom and gloom approach is a turn off to me, It is one of the reason I stopped going to church. We do have to get our act together NOW

It is already too late for thousands of species. Chances are, we have just hosed all crustaceans in the oceans - which could cause the collapse of the ocean ecosystem and possibly the planet as we know it. It is no fun to be doom and gloom - look at how much fun they make of Al Gore - and he toned it way down. We are headed for total ecosystem collapse and so many people want to deny it and are desperate for hope and therefore cling to the astroturfing and nay saying of the corporations (and our current administration) who seem to care of nothing but the very shortest term financial gain at any cost. It is difficult to be cheerful about that.

Did you ever try shopping around for another church that doesn't dwell on doom and gloom, but on the wonderous love of our Lord and savior and what he did for us? He suffered our doom and gloom for us. Media and society are just full of crap to bring us all down. Fight back with getting to know the beautiful world that God has given us, and see the beauty in people, in His creation. Just imagine, if you will, if only half the stuff we hear about in the news and in hollywood is the good that people have in their hearts, and the good things that are going on around us and the good things people do for one another. That should be what we dwell on. That is contagious too, ya know. We would all be more cheery and optimistic.

Sure there is a lot of good will and good actions, VLCC, and those are terrific. However, we are also talking about a need to force, in ourselves as a species, changes in our ways of life. But maybe, VLCC, you are saying that even if the planet undergoes ecological collapse, we should continue to express kindness and a wide open, cheerful mind? That is a respected position held by some who believe it is already too late to avoid major, and catastrophic, changes in the planet.

Then there are others who feel that all this "stuff" about climate change, oil depletion, species extinctions, water shortages, that it is all exaggerated and people should lighten up.

This morning I read an interesting post on this topic.

There is a huge deluge of propaganda out there just to keep us from drilling our own oil. Most likely perpetrated by those who have their own interests in foreign oil and could care less about the future of our children and grandchildren. Drilling for oil in the US will help bring back our jobs, and the strong work ethic our country was built on.

It's been an even stronger issue with me this past week with Russia wanting to gain the control of the oil.

Oh yes, and I believe global warming is a big fat lie. Sorry.

Hello, VLCC. You believe global warming is a big fat lie - may I ask you to explain what kind of information you have used to reach that conclusion on an important topic? Thanks.

Uh, yeah. And you probably don't believe in gravity ether...

You see, the problem with your statement is that global warming is not a theory, it is an observation. It has been observed for nearly a century directly and for a few millennia indirectly (ice core samples and so on). The only part that was disputed was whether this observation was induced by the activities of man or somehow natural. The overwhelming evidence indicates that it is caused by greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, produced by man in the past few centuries of prodigious and exponential increasing burning of fossil fuels. And this is doing more than causing global warming; for example the extra CO2 is also causing acidification of the oceans. We have the technology to easily solve these problems, all we lack is the political will. And with people like you, sticking your head in the sand and eagerly digesting the propaganda spewed by those whose only interest is short-term gain (big oil, big corn, this administration) we will squander our quickly diminishing window of opportunity to save this planet all so we can drive our 200lb ass in a 6 ton SUV for pennies a mile and the CEO of Exxon can make a billion dollars a year for life (that is correct, his salary is $1B/yr and so is his pension).