Randy Rodgers, a retired wildlife biologist, expressed concern about the exploding global population and the related impact on natural resources and our environment. That tied in with what the stool-percher had said. I thought to myself, maybe people in the third world and the developing nations aren't so envious of our proclaimed freedom as they are our consumerist lifestyle. Maybe they think they too should have a throwaway lifestyle --with token recycling to salve their consciences. Maybe they resent developed nations like ours having troops in their countries to secure our access to their critical resources they want to control.

Musil then elaborated on how U.S. fossil fuel dependency led to stationing troops in other countries and to the support of dictators, and how military action is tied to oil addiction.

Then coal came up--and of how "clean" it isn't. Neural synapses sparkled and Sunflower's proposal for adding a coal-fired plant near Holcomb KS popped into everybody's brain. Local Voices columnist Jon Hauxwell asked the key question of the evening.. How can we deal with the loss of short-term fossil fuel profits and jobs in favor of long-term benefits in a transition to greener energy? Why should the future trump the present? Are we our brothers' keeper?

Dr. Jeffery Curtis, Hays cardiologist, related his experiences in North Carolina tobacco country. As a physician he had felt obligated to warn his clients about the dangers of tobacco. They didn't want to hear that, he said. Their jobs, their livelihoods, as well as the local economy, relied on tobacco farming. And a successful tobacco industry meant that people had to buy and use tobacco products. So... they were stubbornly resistant to change and wanted to hear no challenges to their thinking. The mindset also described North Carolina coal mining country

The tobacco industry itself did all that it could to deny evidence of harm-- to confuse people about the science-- and to ward off any threat to their corporate profit. Today more and more in the fossil fuels industry can no longer credibly deny the facts of anthropogenic global warming, and are making investments in green energy. But there are others, like Exxon-Mobil and their allies, who continue to run persistent and often sophisticated propaganda campaigns to deny, confuse, and deny. Just like the tobacco industry.

And so at the end we began to revisit the beginning. The challenge--not just for Americans but for all of humanity and the biosphere-- is to make a transition. That shift promises to be neither painless nor instantaneous--just necessary for our biosphere, and for people to make a living. The issue that resonates with the general public is jobs, the economy.

I thank Randy Rodgers for his reminder that we should rethink our consumerist lifestyle and our assumption that the natural resources of Planet Earth are limitless and ours to exploit without consequence to ourselves and our fellow creatures. Our sense of entitlement is synonymous with selfishness. And selfishness ultimately pays a price.

I thank Dr. Curtis for bringing up tobacco addiction. Getting off tobacco or kicking the fossil fuels addiction requires hard work and involves significant discomfort and changes in lifestyle. But if we care about our own health, the health of those around us, and the health of our planet, we'll accept the challenge.

You can help by writing your congressman, quizzing your candidates, penning a letter to the editor, encouraging your friends, treading a little lighter on the planet. And voting for candidates who are not global warming deniers.

There are new jobs to be created in this country--good ones--in the blossoming of a green energy economy. America, the land of imagination and innovation, should be leading the way.

Robert K. Musil, who teaches about global warming and environmental politics at American University, was in Hays for the week at the invitation of Fort Hays State University. Musil's group Physicians for Social Responsibility shared a Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. He is the author of "Hope for a Heated Planet.