The World's a Blur

As a friend of mine and I were discussing this morning, I am addicted to coffee. However, I am accepting of that fact at this point, and to wean myself off the habit would cause unnecessary pain and anguish at this point in the semester, and thus, I am pressing on. It's not all bad of course, Tim Horton's annual contest is on right now, and with my sleep schedule, coffee helps keep things somewhat sane. Besides, as any addict worth his salt is aware of, I can quit at any time... Being at a research university and particularly enrolled in the sciences, keeps me more than informed about scientific issues facing us over the next century. As my mother seems to think, that means I frequently bring tidings of doom and foreboding. Disregarding how unwelcome that is at any given moment, I would like to take a moment to stress that while unpleasant, they are accurate statements. Specifically, I think we need to take a good, careful look at how we use energy on a daily basis. While I, too, have grown used to and comfortable with the basic amenities in life like cross-continental air travel, using my fridge as a convenient form of air conditioning, and substituting my shower for a hot springs, I think we need to reassess what kind of effect this is having on the environment around us. Most of my faithful readers are aware by now that I am staunchly conservative, and yet I think that this issue needs to be tackled regardless. Most of the scientific data collected from the world around around us paints a painfully clear picture of where our world is going, and that is certainly not to a Utopian society. I think of it more as a dystopia. Being a biologist, I notice articles in the paper like 70% of bees not returning to their hives and think that we are on a decidedly bad path. As I heard the other day, 10 of the hottest years ever on record were in the last 14 years. I don't think it takes a rocket scientist, or indeed even a biologist, to figure out that there may be a problem with that. To my friends tired of my constant harping, however necessary I think it to be, I am planning the next set of articles as a general statement of the world as it is at the beginning of the 21st century.