So, maybe you’re still visiting with the Republican relatives this week; after all, it’s still “the holiday season” and all, so if you want to continue the drip, drip, drip of truth eroding their Bushista worldviews, here’s a suggestion.
If they’re anything like my Republican in-laws, after dinner, while the coffeepot is perking and the pie is heating up, they always put the TV on. Not necessarily to watch, but for background noise. Usually Faux News. but anyway, here comes your chance to do a little something subversive… grab that remote from between the sofa cushions, and when no one is looking put on PBS tonight at 8:30 for NOW. OK, you may have to wait `til the credits are over at 8:34 or so or their heads will explode, but you want to do it tonight – here’s why – the subject is climate change:
Scientists say that over the last century, almost every glacier on earth has gotten smaller and that the Arctic, which serves as the “air conditioner” for the world, is warming twice as fast as anywhere else. It’s part of the evidence, they say, that humans are changing the atmosphere and causing global climate change, which has enormous implications for the health of the planet and its inhabitants. So why are some in government still claiming that global warming is a hoax? On Friday, December 30, 2005 at 8:30 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), NOW analyzes the latest from the scientific and political fronts on climate change. The report looks at recent scientific evidence that has set off alarms about the implications of melting glaciers for rising ocean levels and talks to one coal-burning energy company that voluntarily has pledged to stabilize its greenhouse gas emissions.
Just leave it on. When they start showing pictures of glaciers from a century ago versus today, you can say “Wow! Look at that!” The conversation will stop, eyes will turn towards you and the TV, and you can let the pictures do the talking. Plant that meme: “Who are you going to believe, the president or your own lying eyes?”
Just do it. Especially if you have kids. Or even if you just like kids. It’s that important. They’re the ones from whom we’re borrowing the planet, and trashing it in the process.
And if some relative gives you a hard time just point out his kids or her grandkids running through the room and say “I just don’t think it’s moral to leave the planet to the kids like it’s been used for a frat house. God wants us to be stewards of creation, and stewards don’t have the right to trash the Owner’s property.”
Or maybe you don’t feel up to martyrdom tonight. Just leave it on in the background so they hear bits of it during lulls in the conversation. Every drop of water helps the erosion along.
