It is not often that I find myself at wit's end because of an arguement. I don't usually let myself get carried away when discussing differences with friends. But there was one arguement that has yet to leave my mind, and that was about Global Warming.

 I was in Wisconsin with a large group of friends. We all--boys and girls--met up during the day to go for boat rides, do water sports, or just lay back and swim. We were all having a blast.

One day we all went down to the dock to untie the boat so we could do some wakeboarding. The night before I had read an article in a Time magazine about Common Wealth, and it truely was eye-opening. It discussed how everyone, no matter race, religion, wealth or any other standard that we have created in society, needs to all come together in order to achieve prosperity for human kind. It showed that one day's worth of Pentagon spending could purchase mosquito nets for everyone in Africa, and thus weaken or even stop the spread of Malaria. It also showed how the strength of a united globe could effectively stop the rampant Domino effect of Global Warming.

(Now, you must read the article yourself to give it justice; my word is flimsy and lacking in important details!)

But the main idea of the article was just as the title says, Common Wealth for everyone. Knowing that I had two friends of mine who were conservative and very right wing, I thought that they should read this article and maybe we could have a small discussion about the pros and cons to a globe working as one. Of course they only scanned the article and then threw the magazine into a corner so as it didn't distract from the fun we'd be having out on the boat. I just shrugged it off and instead handed it to another friend of mine who is very liberal. 

To make a long story shorter, he read the article and we started to talk about global warming, rising gas prices and the effect a united nation, much less a united globe, could have on the environment. At about that time, one of my conservative friends showed up and emphatically rolled his eyes at our conversation, but for some reason I wouldn't take it.

I asked him about environmentalism and how he felt about conserving our planet. He agreed that it was a good thing, and I felt a little accomplished. But then I asked him if he would ever drive a hybrid, and that's when the fireworks started.

He said, no, he would never drive a hybrid car, and I asked him why not. He proclaimed that the car is doing the exact same thing as the car he owns right now: releasing carbon into the air. My arguement was that, yes it is, but it is doing so at a much slower rate, and while your car is sitting idle at red lights, wastefully releasing carbons into the air and sucking up gas, a hybrid vehicle would shut its motor off.

But he wouldn't have it. He claimed that the hybrid's greater gas milage would do nothing on a global scale, and I bawked at his blindness. I tried to rack my brain for an analogy and came up with pennies...

"If everyone in the world, 6.6 billion of us, gave you a single penny, you would have an enormous amount of money just from a small contribution made globally. It's the same idea with hybrids. If more people were to make the change over to Hybrid vehicles, we would immediately notice a change in the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, the quality of air and the health of our planet."

Yet he still denied the idea as plausible. 

I began to get a little steamed as his uttter refusal to, at the very least, consider the truth in what I was saying.  So we continued our growing arguement until one of our friends broke us up. 

Afterward I felt both apologetic to my friend as well as furious. It opened my eyes to the fact that there are more people like him, people who refuse to consider change even in the slightest amount. And so I felt defeated. So much good could come out of everyone working together to achieve goals, but it seems fruitless to even try due to the divisiveness of our world.

...So begins our Endless Fight. I will continue to try and pursuade others to understand the effects we as a world could do in order to save our planet, and I know I will be ridiculed. But so long as I know I have others backing me up, fighting for the preservation of our planet and for common wealth, I will battle on.

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