Putting an End to the Climate Change 'Debate'

Everyone -- even the most ardent climate change deniers -- actually knows that air pollution is bad.

I accept that for many the question of rising global temperatures and changing weather patterns remains a question. But rather than continue to debate and discuss whether or not we should be reducing environmental pollution because of the threat of rising global temperatures, can we please all agree to stop arguing in favor of pollution? Pollution that the New York Times recently reported is linked to 1.2 million premature deaths in China and 3.2 million around the world.

Much as a magician distracts his audience from what they are doing with one hand by getting them to focus on the other, those who loudly and publicly remain skeptical about the impact of these pollutants on the environment at a macro-level never, cannot, and do not attempt to argue the well-established fact that what we are pumping into our atmosphere is altering the chemical composition of the air we breathe (changing the climate) and is now the seventh-leading cause of death in the world.

So let us not allow ourselves to fall for the misdirection by those who have a vested interest in dumping known poisons into our atmosphere at an ever increasing rate and instead focus on the fact that these emissions are, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, set to become the top environmental cause of mortality worldwide by 2050.

Isn't that enough of a reason to act?