Global Warming?

I received a call the other day from someone doing a survey on behalf of our local city council, regarding "Global Warming". I don’t usually accept cold calls of any type, but this subject rather intrigued me. One of the first questions was, "What do you think about Global Warming?" Like most of the questions, it was clearly slanted towards a narrow chain of thought that suggested global warming is a reality, the city should become "green", and this survey was going to prove it one way or another (or garner enough support to implement a "green strategy").
I consider that I’m reasonably rational, even though I have my emotional moments (due to a loaded natal 4th house, mainly covered by the astrological sign of Scorpio—hence my handle here). However, the idea that a local governing body wants to act on global warming when the jury is still out on whether the current events are really man-made or due to natural phenomena, such as a cyclic trend, a number of volcanic eruptions or some other action, is premature, at the very least.
Don’t get me wrong here; I’m a very strong environmentalist, who puts his money where his mouth is. My astrological profile suggests an emphasis with making things more efficient and I’ve spent many years working with alternative power such as small wind turbines, solar power and other energy saving activities—all in my spare time. I ride an electric bike and share a Prius.
I’ve spent countless hours working with LED lights, electronic control circuits and motion sensing devices; my outside Christmas tree has been lit for many years with LED’s run by solar powered batteries. I even have an electric golf cart, which I’ve converted to manually switch from 36-volts (running) to 12-volts for charging and powering house lights. The cart, which has a high-powered solar panel on top, connects to a 12-volt line that runs the length of the house.
I’m probably the only person in the immediate locality who does not turn onthe air-conditioner. Instead, I use a large fan to extract the heat from the attic, and I’m working on ways to make this self-powered. I could probably write a book on the number of projects and things I do to reduce my carbon footprint.
With such a background, you might be wondering why I’m seemingly against this push to place global warming at the top of everyone’s agenda. Simply put, it is because this is the wrong reason. Pollution and unnecessary waste should be our top priority; we should be using energy wisely. Energy has only recently become, financially and politically, a noticeable problem. For years, only the industrialized nations were using what seemed to be an infinitely available resource. With so many nations like China and India increasing their need for energy, not only has pollution increased globally, but the increased demand has sent the price of oil and certain other commodities skyrocketing.
Therefore, we all need to be more efficient with energy, not because of some recent catch phrase that is being used for political purposes, but because it’s the right thing to do.