Welcome home...

I know, I know, it's January 5th already and I haven't blogged about the vacation. I haven't downloaded the photos from my camera yet, so the blog will have to wait until I have accompanying illustrations.

In the meantime, a rant about the environment:

I don't mean to sound like an alarmist, but it's probably a pretty good indicator that global warming is continuing to grow as a problem when ice sheets (41 square miles of ice) start breaking free in the Canadian arctic and drifting out to sea. Scientists estimate that the most recent ice sheet in question (which broke off maybe a year ago, although it was only spotted more recently through satellite imaging) is at least 3000 years old. Given the recent trends in global warming, scientists doubt that mere coincidence is to blame for the recent movement of the ice shelf. This news comes only days after Interior Secretary Dick Kempthorne proposed moving polar bears onto the "threatened" portion of the government's list of imperiled species, citing the fact that global warming has been responsible for melting away Arctic sea ice which constitutes significant portions of the polar bear's environment.

And yet Bush still refuses to ratify our singature on the Kyoto Protocols (guidelines developed by the U.N. to reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions amongst member nations), despite the fact that the U.S. remains the world leader in the emission of carbon dioxide (primarily due to our consumption and burning of fossil fuels). The current administration's stance is simply that the cost of compliance with the Kyoto Protocols is likely to cause serious harm to the economy of the United States.

Somehow I just can't by the argument that sacrificing the earth's climate is a good way to cut costs or protect our economy. I'm not so sure anyone's going to be that excited about record numbers on Wall Street if LA and DC are underwater.