it's getting hot in here... so take off all your penguins

You know, it's hard to get psyched about knitting a sweater in January when it's 50 degrees and sunny outside. There are tulips - TULIPS! - coming up outside my office building. Now, I like nice weather as much as the next person, but I'm a little concerned about the melting polar ice caps and everything.

The news this week on global warming has been very, very bad. Apparently 2005 was the hottest year on record (yes, even hotter than 2004). The polar ice caps are melting faster than scientists had predicted, meaning that tropical island nations are going to disappear faster than we had once thought. The penguins and the polar bears are getting aggravated, and I really can't blame them.

It's hard enough to know that I'm one of the greedy first-world energy abusers driving around all the time causing this mess, and that my government could care less about public policy to DO anything about it. But it's such a dang slap in the face to see one of my fellow Americans motor past me in a Hummer (on the way to the gym, where they will pedal a stationary bicycle and walk on a treadmill). Or really any other big car, it's just that the Hummer seems to be the most graphic (and sickening) symbol of our blatant disregard for the rest of humanity.

I think I want to run away to France and join the Dégonflées. They're the nutty wonderful activists who let the air out of the tires of big SUV's. Here's a quick quote from a London Times article:

The continental groups compete to see who can let down the most tyres in a night. In December 14 Belgians deflated the tyres of 137 off-roaders...

A spokesman for a Paris group, who calls himself Sub-Adjutant Marrant (Joker), argues that drivers of 4x4s do not care that their vehicles emit disproportionate amounts of carbon dioxide, and that politicians are scared of the car lobby. “We emphasise the comic, the burlesque side,” he said. “It would be hard to take us to court. We don’t slash tyres; we deflate them. Air doesn’t cost anything.”

The worry-wart Brits raise legitimate concerns about people needing their cars in an emergency and finding them with the tires (or tyres) flat. But what a paltry little worry, when we're frying the whole damn planet, starting with penguins! It's fun to hate on SUV's, but really, we ought to be letting the air out of all our own tires. Not our bikes, though! Penguins love your bike.

I want to get all fired up about the Alito confirmation today, because I think that flushing sound I just heard were my reproductive rights going down the toilet... or was it the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? But instead I'm feeling a little too deflated about the Big Picture to focus on any one evil weasel and his ascension to the Supreme Court.

I don't get why nutty fundamentalists threaten heathens with perishing in the eternal lake of fire when we're creating it for ourselves right here on planet earth. We've got it all here, folks - both the eternal paradise and the eternal hellfires - whatever we choose to do with it - right on our little earth. So excuse me please, I'm off to gather me rosebuds while I may, which I guess is in the middle of winter now.