Dean,

Thanks for the book tip. Personally I avoid talking about the left or the right, as I find it too constrictive doing so. What I can't tolerate is totalitarianism (from either end of the scale).

RE: Cult like impressions of the green movement. Without sounding too much like a nutter, I do think the environmental movement of old has been hijacked by some totalitarian type forces (left or right, I can't tell). When we have political figures talking about the need to suspend democracy and so forth, my BS meter goes berserk.

Tom, I agree completely. The one good thing I have seen come out of what I consider to be a fraud has been that people are actually giving more thought into what actually goes into producing what they buy. The end of the disposable society? I hope so.

Here's a neat psuedo science experiment for you all. Get a glass of water and put some ice cubes in it. Let the ice melt. Did the water level rise? Nope. Why? because ice has more volume than the water used to create it (talk to geologists and they'll explain how this effect actually breaks rocks apart over time).

So the melting ice caps will result in a 60 metre rise in sea levels? Huh?

Now this is how you learn Philosophy :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm0Uq08xXhY