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NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Thursday 5 July 2012
“The U.S. news media have a critical role to play in educating the public about climate change.”
Climate Change: ‘This is Just the Beginning’
Evidence supporting the existence of climate change is pummeling the United States this summer, from the mountain wildfires of Colorado to the recent “derecho” storm that left at least 23 dead and 1.4 million people without power from Illinois to Virginia. The phrase “extreme weather” flashes across television screens from coast to coast, but its connection to climate change is consistently ignored, if not outright mocked. If our news media, including—or especially—the meteorologists, continue to ignore the essential link between extreme weather and climate change, then we as a nation, the greatest per capita polluters on the planet, may not act in time to avert even greater catastrophe.
More than 2,000 heat records were broken last week around the U.S. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the government agency that tracks the data, reported that the spring of 2012 “marked the largest temperature departure from average of any season on record for the contiguous United States.” These record temperatures in May, NOAA says, “have been so dramatically different that they establish a new ‘neighborhood’ apart from the historical year-to-date temperatures.”
In Colorado, at least seven major wildfires are burning at the time of this writing. The Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs destroyed 347 homes and killed at least two people. The High Park fire farther north burned 259 homes and killed one. While officially “contained” now, that fire won’t go out, according to Colorado’s Office of Emergency Management, until an “act of nature such as prolonged rain or snowfall.” The “derecho” storm system is another example. “Derecho” is Spanish for “straight ahead,” and that is what the storm did, forming near Chicago and blasting east, leaving a trail of death, destruction and downed power lines.
Add drought to fire and violent thunderstorms. According to Dr. Jeff Masters, one of the few meteorologists who frequently makes the connection between extreme weather and climate change, “across the entire Continental U.S., 72 percent of the land area was classified as being in dry or drought conditions” last week. “We’re going to be seeing a lot more weather like this, a lot more impacts like we’re seeing from this series of heat waves, fires and storms. ... This is just the beginning.”
Fortunately, we might be seeing a lot more of Jeff Masters, too. He was a co-founder of the popular weather website Weather Underground in 1995. Just this week he announced that the site had been purchased by The Weather Channel, perhaps the largest single purveyor of extreme weather reports. Masters promises the same focus on his blog, which he hopes will reach the much larger Weather Channel audience. He and others are needed to counter the drumbeat denial of the significance of human-induced climate change, of the sort delivered by CNN’s charismatic weatherman Rob Marciano. In 2007, a British judge was considering banning Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” from schools in England. After the report, Marciano said on CNN, “Finally. Finally ... you know, the Oscars, they give out awards for fictional films, as well. ... Global warming does not conclusively cause stronger hurricanes like we’ve seen.” Masters responded to that characteristic clip by telling me, “Our TV meteorologists are missing a big opportunity here to educate and tell the population what is likely to happen.”
Beyond the borders of wealthy countries like the United States, in developing countries where most people in the world live, the impacts of climate change are much more deadly, from the growing desertification of Africa to the threats of rising sea levels and the submersion of small island nations.
The U.S. news media have a critical role to play in educating the public about climate change. Imagine if just half the times that they flash “Extreme Weather” across our TV screens, they alternated with “Global Warming.” This Independence Day holiday week might just be the beginning of people demanding the push to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, and pursue a sane course toward sustainable energy independence.
© 2011 Amy Goodman
Distributed by King Features Syndicate
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ABOUT Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 900 stations in North America. She is the author of "Breaking the Sound Barrier," recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.
64 comments on "Climate Change: ‘This is Just the Beginning’"
August 26, 2012 9:51am
Good movie on the subject... "The Boy Who Cried Warming" (vimeo.com/47182591)
July 06, 2012 10:07pm
I don't have time to read all these responses.
In Australia our two public tv stations, the ABC and SBS (a branch of PBS) have given significant space to the issue of climate change: especially, differences among scientists in this contentious area despite general agreement about dangers posed by fossil fuels and the need to control carbon emissions.
Both of our major political parties agree about human responsibility for 'weather' and 'climate' issues being discussed around the globe. The issue is what, precisely, should be done so that humankind protects itself better for the sake, especially, of future generations.
July 06, 2012 9:21pm
go to CitizensClimateLobby.org and check out HR 3242 Save Our Climate Act; a very short bill. Ask your congress person to cosponsor it. then ask other concerned friends to ask their legislator to cosponsor it. we can prevent devastation, but there's no time to waste arguing with deniers.
July 06, 2012 12:30pm
The big X-factor in all this, which makes discerning the truth majorly difficult, is, well, it's like John Lennon said: "Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it." (Bang!)
These maniacs are alternately known as the Elite, Power Elite, Illuminati, Ruling Class, and so on. Anyone who doubts their deep manipulation of human society has probably not done any homework. It is suggested that the most unsettling chaos we face today—war, poverty, rampant disease, planetary destruction, financial strife, and more—are symptoms, even intended effects, of manipulation by this 'Cabal.' Their globalist 'Agenda' is a fascist world government run by business—banks, mostly.
First of all, I'm always wary of Amy, since her outfit is CIA funded.
Secondly, one trouble authority worshippers have is that they don't believe that scams can be carried out on such a large scale, especially one involving science. I've got two words for these folks: HIV/AIDS and vaccination—two of the biggest scams ever run on the herd. Huge scams are an Elite specialty. For example, look at diamonds—cheap, abundant rocks, actually. The banking industry, our economic/financial systems, and even taxes, especially income taxes, are Elite concoctions for societal domination, control, and theft of wealth ('sold' as freedom, of course).
Thirdly, what about the real possibility of weather manipulation intended to sell the CO2 theory, or/and even just to create more chaos—real or imagined. Causing chaos is a major tactic of the noted 'Cabal,' or gang of power-mad control freaks that seeks to micromanage the herd a la Orwell's "1984," but on steroids. This tactic drives people to the system to 'protect' or 'save' them.
Because there is an awakening to the conspiratorial view of history that threatens to expose the MO and control mechanisms of the Cabal, which not only corrupted the US Constitution at the outset, but which created the regimes we know as the Third Reich and the USSR. So, the more distractions and threats they can throw, the less time people have to think and oppose the system.
The problem (and little can be done about it, but it is a lesson) is not global warming per se (for instance, if it's not anthropogenic), but its impact on humanity's toxic structures and infrastructure, built too close to coastlines (and on the flood plains of rivers—idiotic). This resulted, like Jaydee's pollution account, from Whitey's technomasturbation and alienation from Nature. Those innately in touch with Nature, such as unspoiled indigenous people, might not have been so easily fooled by the polluter's rationalization as were the greed-driven, colonizing white folk.
For example, a close friend with Cherokee heritage said that Natives knew about the wheel, but refused to implement it in their culture, because they knew it would destroy the earth. And so it has. Arrogance and self-possession won out. On the other hand, one way in which Natives vastly changed the earth was to create the great rainforests of what is now South America. And we all know Whitey's effect on those.
But one big red flag on the CO2 theory, for those who understand the globalist Agenda, is the UN wanting to impose a global carbon tax. Bottom line: I don't care if people want to behave as if CO2 is a problem. There are several good motives for minimizing it. BUT—don't carbon-tax me, bro; and don't build a global bureaucracy/control machine.
Besides, Fukushima is such a greater threat right now by orders of magnitude, that we may never get to the warming part. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=htFph3oPh7w&NR=1
July 06, 2012 12:36pm
Apologies, I meant to say "Thirdly, what about the real possibility of weather manipulation intended to sell the CO2 theory, or/and even just to create more chaos. Causing chaos—real or imagined—is a major tactic..."
July 06, 2012 9:22am
I have one question to pose to Joebanana, "realman (child)", and all the other deniers here and everywhere in the world. But first, some explanatory background:
The philosophical ancestors of Joe and Real Child were the people who told us, consistently, shrilly, throughout the 19th centruy and well into the 20th that the water resources of the USA were infinite, and unconnected, and that we could pollute them as much as we wanted , forever, without consequence. Their mantra was that something flushed into a body of water went "away", never to return.Then suddenly our lakes were dying, unable to hold enough oxygen for even minimal life to survive. The Cayuhoga River caught fire and burned for a week. We discovered that the major rivers and lakes in the USA were so hideously contaminated with high levels of deadly toxic industrial waste that we couldn't eat the fish that still lived in them without risking cancer or worse.
And yet the ancestors of Joe and Child denied that it was a problem, and fought efforts to create the EPA and the Clean Water Act.
Such people will never, ever, take responsibility for their own actions and contributions to the defiling of our ecosystem. Never - they are emotionally nine-years old, and always will be. When a nine-year old refuses to clean his room until the garbage is piled to the ceiling, and something spontaneously combusts, do you expect him to suddenly admit his culpability? They are not capable.
SO that's the background: here's the question, that should be repeated to them over and over again, consistently, repeatedly, ad nauseum, ad infinitum, until they come up with a RATIONAL answer - which doesn't exist. The QUESTION: HOW MUCH pollution can our tiny, 7-mile-thick, extremely finite atmosphere absorb before we feel the effects? HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM?!?!?! I want a number. They insist on denying what is obvious to other nine-year-olds, they insist that we more mature citizens prove a negative. All I ask of them is a statement of the positive: I want their "educated, scientific" answer, in pounds per cubic yard, of how much industrial and other pollution we can mix into the atmosphere "safely".
Joe? Child? Crickets???
July 06, 2012 11:59am
Here's the question. Prove that co2 is a pollutant?..
July 06, 2012 11:28am
JAYDEE, I have an old copy of Fishing Facts magazine published about the time the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act were enacted. Fishing Facts published the vote tally. It was almost entirely along party lines with most every Republican voting against both bills and most every Democrat voting in favor.
The more things change the more they stay the same. Or something.
July 06, 2012 12:59am
Rather than just shouting past each other, both sides should agree on a PlanB, just in case climate change really is caused by CO2. My PlanB would be a tax -- yes, a tax -- on carbon, with its revenue going to a trust fund designed so that Congress can't piss it away. Use the trust fund only to find the miracles needed to make solar competitive with fossil.
July 07, 2012 2:42am
there already is one: H.R.3242 Save Our Climate Act.
July 06, 2012 2:44am
Too little too late John. Either we apply the skids hard and now, or negative feedback loops will over ride later Co2 reductions. This is why many who understand the nature of the calamity doubt the worlds resolve to act in time. While idiots claim a hoax. Go figure
July 06, 2012 1:05am
Solar can never compete with oil.
July 06, 2012 2:31am
correctly calculated, oil/fossil fuels can never compete with solar/wind/geothermal/tidal etc. if the cost of climate change is added to oil/fossil fuels.
July 06, 2012 12:02pm
If I add the cost of clean underwear to the cost of tomatoes then tomatoes would be prohibitive. Does that make tomatoes bad?
July 06, 2012 8:17am
Nothing competes with this...
LFTRs in 5 minutes - Thorium Reactors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK367T7h6ZY
July 05, 2012 11:34pm
Berlin Veteran - just do a little research. You are acting like just because you don't have a valid answer, others don't either. And, on the down side, WHAT IF THEY ARE RIGHT???? What if the nay-sayers are WRONG? We do not inherit the earth from our parents - we borrow it from our children!!! We MUST do everything we can to hand off to them a healthier planet than we were given.
July 06, 2012 1:07am
The Flying Spaghetti monster is the supreme god. He demands that you send me all your money or the earth will end.
You believe that?
No?
What if I am right? Shouldn't you just send me all your money just in case you are wrong?
July 05, 2012 9:13pm
I know what will fix it, give the government more money. It'll suck the carbon dioxide right out of the atmosphere. Even though Earths climate has been changing for 4.55 billion years, and the solar system is also warming, it's not just us.
July 05, 2012 8:45pm
Notice there are more fossil fuel defenders than usual. The entrenched polluters know that millions of people are alarmed by the extreme weather we are experiencing. So the polluters have opened their wallets and their propagandist employee hoards have sallied forth.
July 05, 2012 10:04pm
So if someone differs with your opinion that AGW is a human caused plague you think they like oil companies? That's really pathetic. I am hugely disappointed that solar is not perfected by now. It should have been years ago. But for geopolitical and personal economic reasons. But as I said, that same sun is what controls our climate. Listening to a bunch of self-important "intellectuals" tell us we are crazy for not believing their delusional proclamations that THEY will actually alter the course of the solar system if we do what they say is, well.... Utter bulls**t.
July 05, 2012 8:30pm
Climate change is not a single question. There are forces at work, right now, for global warming and global cooling. The question people are pondering is whether or not there is global warming that is anthropogenic, and whether or not anthropogenic warming is directly related to the weather this summer. It is a hot, dry summer, and it cannot be used to measure developments over the time frame anthropogenic global warming is believed to occur. Remember that over the past decade solar cooling has also been a part of the weather we've been experiencing. Data saying warming is occurring is compelling, but you can't do that in the USA in one summer!
WA
July 05, 2012 7:00pm
Free Market Underdog takes the prize! Yes, really, Solar Panels are just about cheaper than typical grid power in California now. Our halcion future is coming sooner than I predicted, governed (as I had expected) by everyone acting in their own interest! "Let the chips fall where they may!", I have explulsed to "Jack" FM (among some 4000 remarks I let them have in the past couple years). Indeed, I hadn't expected that after June 2007 I would have to do anything more, but (snicker, snicker) I think I've sent ocean-front property values plummeting. There ya go Hollyood and Jack FM, 'Jack's been a busy boy'.... For my next act, well, with emphysema and probable heart attacks I'll probably leave it to you young people! But, one more thing, Joe hits it perfect, as oil may now be headed down after one last sprint due to the Iran problem, now the market will crash towards Solar and natural gas, especially for investors who want their money to mean something other than just black ink on the bottom line!
July 05, 2012 5:35pm
I am completely at a loss with the comments of the few who believe it's a hoax! They must have vested interests in nasty addictive pollutants. And the Free Market comment is just a joke! What the hell is wrong with these goof balls?
July 06, 2012 4:33am
Naw, Mollydolly, they're not goofballs. They just belong to a different tribe than your tribe. It is an ideology, almost a religion. Tribes tend to speak mostly to members of their tribe. When offended by outsiders, they circle the wagons to protect their beliefs.
It is said, "If you want to find the truth, don't take sides". Never truer than today.
July 06, 2012 12:41am
Absolutely! That nasty CO2 should be banned!! Human beings should be forced to hold their breath lest they pollute the planet.
July 05, 2012 5:10pm
Climate change is underway and its consequences can only be mitigated and not reversed. The more people deny and delay serious action, the more drastic the consequences. Apparently, those consequences will be incredibly severe. As in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Americans believe the "shadows" projected by the media and corporations on their television "walls" are reality. The Laws of Nature are not subject to opinion.
July 05, 2012 6:43pm
Climate change is ALWAYS underway and has been since long before man started using fossil fuels. The last cycle of global warming saw a period of great prosperity on the earth as growing seasons were longer and tree lines on mountains grew further up.
How long have we been keeping weather records? Then compare that to how long humans have been on the earth. Amy Goodman wants to correlate nasty weather to man-made sources with absolutely zero data on what weather was like in the last cycle of global warming - about 1500 years ago.
July 05, 2012 6:09pm
Just what do you think humans can do? The arrogance is astonishing. The sun controls the climate of everything in its system. There isn't anything you can do about it. You see everything through the prism of a tiny, tiny slice of time. But Al Gore, and windmill companies can make lots of money by scaring people. Oh, and it's the ultimate redistribution of wealth scam. You do know why Greenland was named as such, right?
July 06, 2012 2:17am
Albert that "the sun controls the climate" is just plain Daffy.
The seasons occur because of a 23 1/2 degree tilt in the earth's axis. Altitude affects the climate. Mountain ranges cause more rain to fall on one side, many times causing deserts on the other. Ocean currents, like the Gulf Stream warm the British Isles, and El Nino changes rainfall patterns. The Amazon Basin Rain forest creates it's own rainfall patterns that are changing with deforestation. It's more windy in mountain/desert passes. Cities create local "hot spots" often >10 degrees higher than surrounding areas. Change any of these things and the local climate will also change while the sun remains the same.
Get a clue
July 05, 2012 5:10pm
Climate change is underway and its consequences can only be mitigated and not reversed. The more people deny and delay serious action, the more drastic the consequences. Apparently, those consequences will be incredibly severe. As in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Americans believe the "shadows" projected by the media and corporations on their television "walls" are reality. The Laws of Nature are not subject to opinion.
July 05, 2012 3:22pm
This global warming is a hoax and we all know it. The cycles are the same as from my childhood to this very day.
so these people whom think forcing this down our throats as something that needs immediate intervention, need to sit back and look at the facts as they stand. in my estimation
They've been brain washed !
July 05, 2012 5:35pm
You're brilliant!
July 05, 2012 4:48pm
Colo43 ~ Well now, aren't you just brilliant?! How is it that you know so much? Got credentials? No? I didn't think so.
Just so you get the idea here .... the cycles are NOT the same as from your (or my) childhood. The glaciers around the world were not melting at a furious rate back then (during my childhood they were growing for pities sake). Permafrost was not melting -- not even close. Ocean levels were not rising. And the rate (important word: RATE) of CO2 increasing is completely off the charts. Nothing even close to it in 300 million years (that was before your childhood). And the oceans were not acidifying and rising in temperatures. I could go on and on and on. It's all out there and it's fact.
And ain't nobody forcing anything down your throat ... excepting nature.
Now, how about you provide us with the "facts" as you know them. Let's see your college training provide us with convincing facts (you know, facts. i.e., the truth) not some cutesy, made-up stuff.
We're ready, waiting and anxious to see what you got. Go for it.
July 06, 2012 12:45am
As we are all awaiting YOUR credentials along with proof of all those claims you just made coupled with proof that man caused all of those things you claim. Then finish it off with the proof that giving wads of cash to the IMF and the Al Gore's of the world will solve it.
July 05, 2012 2:08pm
Out of 13 comments we have two climate change deniers. They are looking out for the interests of the pollution profiteers.
If the extreme weather events don't convince these people nothing will.
Obviously something is up with the weather and it is not caused by solar flares. Any scientist that made such a claim isn't deserving of the name "scientist".
July 06, 2012 12:48am
Your nickname is appropriate in this context.
July 05, 2012 12:47pm
"Free Market", is not even a theory, it is a myth. Corporations manage the market , much of the government, and are trying to buy the rest with sick, bought-out judges as the referee.
The short term profits to be made by increasing fossil fuel extractions and sales are accompanied by catastrophic climate crisis losses both here and now, and even much worse in the future.
It is amazing that intelligent and some well meaning persons can not see this now.
July 05, 2012 12:37pm
As long as there are people like Senator Inhofe of OK and his sponsors who think global warming is a hoax despite fires, extreme weather and the findings of 97% of climate scientists, this planet is doomed to destruction unless we can find a way to convince people like him who are strategically planted in the decision structures.
July 06, 2012 12:50am
As long as brainwashed cult members such as yourself make up fake numbers and believe natural phenomenon is the result of man made activity we will all be doomed slaves.
July 05, 2012 4:54pm
Inhofe is an idiot. Always has been and apparently always will be. His most recent 'environmental' legislation was shot down in the US House by a huge margin. Even hard right wingers couldn't swallow it. Ignore him .... he'll go away. Meanwhile we can focus on the facts and work on what needs to get done. He's just a distraction (in fact, if you look at his ideas carefully you can get some good laughs -- like Cain, Perry, Bachmann .... I miss them, the comedy was terrific and they turned out to be harmless.) One of these days the good people of Oklahoma will get the message and dump him. It's a forgone conclusion.
July 06, 2012 12:51am
The majority of the American people will NEVER allow you brainwashed Al Gore cult members to ruin our lives with your fake AGW malarkey.
July 05, 2012 12:25pm
Saying that polution is the source of global warming is like saying loosing your pants is the source of pregnancies. Al Gore positioned himself to profit from the sales of Carbon Credits. I have heard some scientists believe that solar flares cause global warming as well. What are we going to do about that. Tell the sun not to flare up anymore? Good Luck with that!! They talk like this is a forgone conclusion when there are those in the Scientific Community that believe otherwise. If the media is not going to do the critical thinking like they used to do then it's up to us to look at questions like How did they come to this conclusion? Are there other opinions on this? Who stands to profit from this is we do decide this is the solution? I may not have all the answers but I do have a lot of questions. Maybe others do to now!!
July 05, 2012 2:26pm
Climate change is real, measurable, and "in progress". Weather patterns are largely influenced by the interaction of warm moist tropical air with Arctic cold air and the jet stream which tends to "re-circle" most of the cold air nearer to the poles. Extended and/or protracted loops in the jet stream promote extreme weather events like drought, record rain/snow fall, and cold. Yes Dorthy "Global Warming" can/dose cause cold weather events. Modulations in the depth/ breadth oscillations of the equatorial monsoon system play a role similar to the jet stream (Pakistan flooding).
Of greatest concern are the negative feedback loops melting the poles. Ice reflects heat back into space, open ocean, not so much. Warmer water less ocean ice .....warmer water...... you get the picture.
Permafrost contains mega amounts of plant matter. Thaw it and it decomposes into lots carbon dioxide, warming the planet .....melting more permafrost ...... well you get the picture.
So let's get over this "gee maybe it's not real" BS. Be a help and not a hinder towards softening the greatest calamity to humanity in human history.
July 06, 2012 12:55am
Saying Climate change is in action is like saying sometimes it rains. Of course climate change is in action. We're just not as arrogant as you Al Gore Cult members who believe man caused it and the solution is to give our money to Al Gore and the IMF.
July 05, 2012 12:14pm
Amygdala-dominant conservatives are impervious to Facts and TRUTH.
July 06, 2012 12:56am
Brainwashed liberals are impervious to Facts and TRUTH.
July 05, 2012 11:50am
Being a co-founder of Sustainability Education Network and advisory director of Greenhouse Neutral Foundation, I obviously welcome Amy Goodman's attention to climate change, and her encouragement of Jeff Masters. We are handicapped by the general silence of MSM, and reminded that MSM were quick to report the mockery of global warming when a freak spring snowstorm hit Washington DC. While record highs in the USA join the list of suspiciously extreme weather phenomena in recent years, too many climate change scientists are reluctant to comment because of the possible role of natural variations. Unfortunately the public does not grasp the steadily rising risk of a encountering a catastrophic feedback loop in consequence of adopting an otherwise rational "the jury is out" attitude. It's not a question of "whether", but "when". Quibbling over the "when" is tantamount to saying it is acceptable to wait and see whether it is our children or our grandchildren we are marching blindfolded into a massive minefield.
July 05, 2012 11:28am
Man-made global warming is a theory. This is in contrast to a provable fact, such as that one plus two equals three. To draw a cause-and-effect conclusion between this theory and today’s weather is an absolute affront to any legitimately scientific process.
While we should all do what we can to reasonably reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, it would not make sense to burden our economy with more hare-brained schemes “for our own good” from an already overgrown federal government bureaucracy.
The free market and the profit motive were sufficient for society to move from horses and buggies to the automobile. Given sufficient time, the same forces will allow a replacement for fossil fuel consumption, and, yes, this will happen before all of the polar bears die.
Free Market Underdog
July 08, 2012 9:23pm
Historically, the horse and buggy were supplanted by railroads, as a result of massive government subsidies (land grants) to the robber barons who profited hugely from building and operating them. After WWII, the railroads were supplanted by freeways, and cities by sprawling suburbs, thanks to another huge round of government subsidies (the federal interstate highway program). The Internet resulted from government-subsidized development of ARPAnet. I could go on, but the point is that there's no such thing as the "free market". I can't prove that any specific storm or heat wave is caused by any specific outburst of CO2 emissions, but I can prove that anyone who puts his/her faith in the "free market" would be better off expecting to retire on lottery winnings. Markets are always determined by political decisions.
July 05, 2012 4:59pm
Joe ~ pretending you know more than 97% of scientists and buying into the other 3% .... it doesn't make you right. We've had others like you down thru history (remember how they reacted when told the SUN was the center of the Universe? Or they bled people to death to "save" them? They had to eat their words and you will too. But keep fighting it if it makes you feel better. We can work on solutions without you ... in fact, we're a lot better off if we do. Back to your soapbox now....