Fixing America In 500 Words Or Less Chapter 13 IS THERE REALLY LIFE IN THE FUTURE? When I was a young boy growing up in Southern California, all of us kids had trouble breathing on summer days that were exceptionally smoggy.  We experienced chest pains, shortness of breath and burning pain in our lungs, whether or not we had asthma or other problems not attributable to the smog. It is a very well-documented and accepted medical fact that human-induced pollution is significantly harmful to people, especially young children. ¹  This fact alone is plenty more than enough reason to get rid of as much pollution as possible, as quickly as possible. Our ever-myopic U.S. media, as usual, is focusing on the wrong thing.  Whether or not human-induced pollution is causing global warming is irrelevant to the larger issue of increased lung disease, cancer, liver disease and heart problems that result from it.  Pollution is also very bad for plant and animal food sources that we depend upon to survive, ending up in the water we share with them and the ground where our crops grow. ² Air and water pollution have been increasing at an alarming rate due to accelerated economic growth in China and India.  And not surprisingly, significant health problems are documented to have dramatically increased well beyond mere population growth in both nations over the past ten years. There is no legitimate argument that can be made against curbing and eliminating human-induced pollution as quickly as possible.  And Al Gore is absolutely right that human pollution is causing significant harm to our planet and every living thing on it, whether or not he is correct in every detail. ³ The actual science is highly complex, involving both global warming and global dimming processes.  Global warming is the stronger of the two and thus, the net result is our planet is indisputably warming up.  Vast quantities of ice have disappeared in the past few years in South America and Greenland and at both poles, leaving large areas of bare surface where thick ice recently dominated the landscape. Point Barrow, Alaska and entire islands are literally vanishing into the sea.  And meanwhile, corrupt bought-and-paid-for scientists, politicians and right-wing media hacks routinely rip known science way out of context and otherwise, completely ignore overwhelming evidence they don't like. Time is running out for ourselves and may well have run past the point of no return for our children and their children.  Is there really life in the future? You decide. NOTES: 1. Just a few of the innumerable online sources documenting negative health effects of pollution on human beings:  a) Health Effects of Air Pollution, b) Natural Resources Defense Council, c) Smog Effects, d) Medical Effects of Air Pollutants , e) Effects of Air Pollution on Births in Los Angeles, f) Effects of Pollution on Hearing and Balance, g) World Health Organization, h) Air Pollution Kills 2 Million Per Year, i) United States, j) China, k) India, l) Sri Lanka, m) International Air Pollution Statistics. 2. a) Air Pollution Effects on Plants and Animals, b) Wild Life and Pollution, c) Human Infectious Diseases Due to Water Pollution, d) Water Pollution Effects, e) Bizarre Pollution Effects on Animals, f) Coral Reefs in Crises. 3. The evidence that human-induced pollution is causing significant adverse effects to the planetary environment of us all is overwhelming and, perhaps greater than evidence for almost all other documented scientific evidence combined.  Because determining negative effects of human-induced pollution is a highly complex science involving a great many inter-acting global warming, global dimming and other complex processes, right-wing media hacks and bought-and-paid-for corporate frauds posing as "scientists", are rather easily able to deceive portions of the general American public by pulling a few "facts" out of context.  People who don't study evidence or read much for themselves and thus, depend on crooked priests, preachers and political hacks to explain things for them, are accustomed to short, simplistic sound-bite explanations, of which regarding the severe negative effects of human-induced global pollution, there aren't any, other than for the human race to abandon the planet entirely and start all over somewhere else.  One might logically ask, if right-wing media hacks and corporate shill scientists know so much about what is true regarding pollution, why aren't they trying to do something about what is overwhelmingly documented to be deadly to their own children and grandchildren, rather than wasting everybody's time disputing Global Warming causes.  One must conclude that Thomas Jefferson was indeed truly wrong about all people being created equal, especially in the ethics, morality and common sense and decency departments. Click to Go Back to Contents Other Books by Richard Aberdeen Click Here to eMail the Author Copyright © by Richard Aberdeen Copyright © by Freedom Tracks Music No part of this material may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author: Inquires click here.  Appendix Revolution and Revolution/Side B are open copyright and may be reproduced or utilized as desired.