Maybe we should stop talking about man-made global climate change and go back to talking about plain old pollution. It's a subject that's easily understood and seen all around the world. In the '60s and '70s, pollution was an important and much talked about topic. People wrote songs about it that were played on the radio. There were T-shirts, bumper stickers, and posters, some with pictures of the earth telling us to "Love Our Mother" or reminding us that "Good planets are hard to find." Pollution is ugly, but, more importantly, easy to see. These days we are focusing more on it's potential side effects, such as climate change. This shift in the discussion has left more room for denial and doubt since it's more difficult to measure and predict. Climate change is also harder to see, which makes it easier to ignore, especially if it's not happening in your backyard or affecting your quality of life. It's both frustrating and unfortunate that the shift in focus has allowed more uncertainty into the conversation, even though it makes perfect sense that 7+ billion of us are negatively affecting the health of the Earth through our collective consumption, greed, and thoughtlessness. Show them again all the smog, the mountains of garbage, the oil spills, the ubiquitous plastics on the shores and on the seas. This can't be denied, can it?

Steve Buffer