This is awkward and I'm exhausted.

I can't sleep.

It's been a problem for a while and while it is improving - I have encountered a few setbacks with the constant need to wee during the night.
Got to love the third trimester.
Anyway, to help me go back to sleep, I listen to the radio in the middle of the night.
Music doesn't work, it has to be talking. So I listen to random talk back radio. It is fascinating and quite confronting. Somehow, despite being fascinated and confronted - I fall asleep. So that's good.
So ANYWAY, the people who call and the people who host these kinds of shows in the early hours of the morning, have extremely conservative views. And that's being polite.
Currently, the subject of choice to discuss on these shows is climate change and the bizarre situation that has developed in Australian politics this week. These people don't believe in climate change. There's alot of talk of conspiracy theories, world government and global cooling. There are alot of raised voices and emotional tirades. In regard to the ETS currently being debated in our Senate, there are mentions of PM Rudd wanting to be the UN Secretary General and the fact that if it comes in - Australia will be a third world country. That 'working families' will go to the wall if they have to pay this 'tax on everything'.
So, in daylight hours and through more reliable sources, I have tried to educate myself more about this debate. Obviously it has ( in an Australian context) become quite complex and I'm not educated enough to go into all of that at the moment. But it has made me very interested in the climate change believers versus climate change non-believers battle of the wills going on all over the world at the moment.
I assume it has heated up recently ( no pun intended) because of Copenhagen at the end of the year...
It seems to me that no matter what your stance, it is a highly emotive topic.
In fact, I think it may be one of those topics like sex, politics and religion - that you either don't discuss with your nearest and dearest. Or if you do, do some deep breathing beforehand.
I had a brief conversation with Sd this morning and well, lets just say, there were some raised voices. We ended up still bffs , but it came close to someone storming out of the room. And I'm proud to say it wasn't just me considering it!
It strikes me that although the vast majority of us are not scientists specialising in the environment or climate change - we seem supremely confident that whatever it is we believe is correct and it is an outrage that someone could hold a different view. Which is a shame because, if you asked me, that kind of closedmindedness and anger, means that it will take longer for us (the world) to actually find out exactly what is going on here and what we can do to help.
I believe that climate change/global warming is real and is contributed to by humans. And I think we urgently need to do something about it. However, I am not 100% sure that the scientific explanation we have at this point shows us the entire picture and therefore I am not convinced that drastic changes need to be made now to the Australian economy in an attempt to solve this global problem.
Something has to be done though.
I've got no solutions. None. But think being open minded is a very good start.

This interview with Ed Begley ( an actor and environmentalist) on Fox ( an abomination of a 'media outlet' - just saying...) is , to me, indicative of the biggest problem we all have right now. Diametrically opposing views and no one is listening to each other.
Rant over.
Have a lovely weekend and don't hate me if you think I'm all wrong about this! Maybe I am. I'm learning as I go... xx