We are sentient creatures, albeit stubborn ones at times. But in light of such overwhelming evidence from Al Gore and the entire climate change community, we must be willing to change our minds and act quickly to stop global warming. Make no mistake, though: we still maintain our small-government conservative positions. It was simply Gore's recent "ten-year plan" speech that brought upon our sudden realization that this problem truly is monumental. Indeed, we have mulled this over for quite awhile as made clear by the market-based approach to global warming A.J. was discussing recently.

As drastic measures need to be taken when confronting life-threatening problems from other countries, so drastic decisions must be made to avert a catastrophe of our own creation. While our wariness of government solutions remains, it becomes harder everyday to to see an alternative when much of the population is likely still as stubborn as we were. What follows is a list of actions that we feel society must immediately implement in order to combat this grave danger:

1) Land is, and ought to be, the communal property of any nation. Therefore the government, representing the people, must decide how it is used. It cannot simply be marted out to the highest bidder. This will ensure the land is used in a carbon-neutral manner.

2) As you know, we conservatives often argue against the progressive tax because it discourages economic progress and innovation. However, for that very purpose it may be useful to maintain and increase it for a short time in order to put a reign around large, pollutive industries that would then have to reduce their operations.

3) California's law regulating what kind of light bulbs we can have in our homes is a wonderful step in the right direction. Thankfully, Congress appears to be following suit; they have considered a bill that would regulate how much we can use our heaters. These household conveniences are proven sources of tremendous amounts of energy waste, and their control is a much-needed victory in this battle.

4) We must frequently engage in forums and planning sessions in order to spread the word about global warming, and we must convince more conservatives to help us in order to gain a foothold in what will certainly be a stubborn demographic.

5) The President should add the new cabinet position of Secretary of Climate Change to head up the "Department of Climate Change" which will be created to specifically address the problem of climate change. It should cooperate with the Department of State in order to facilitate international solutions to the climate problem.

6) While we agree with conservative radio hosts 90% of the time, this is a case in which we feel that the public needs to be exposed to dissonant opinions. Therefore, we feel that the reinstitution of the Fairness Doctrine to give equal airtime to those who espouse the dangers of climate change is the necessary remedy. Further, we need a gasoline limit on our citizens like they have in Britain. When they go over their limit, they must pay an additional fee.

7) We must more aggressively apply the carbon tax on polluting factories. This is the only way to motivate them to stop with their harmful antics.

8) As a society, we have become aware of the fact that animals release methane and impact the environment--especially when you consider the UN study stating that methane exacerbates the greenhouse effect with quadruple the potency of CO2. We propose developing an incentive program for vegetarians and vegans in order to reduce the size and profitability of the meat market. This will encourage livestock farmers to grow plants instead, which is a further blessing since those will reduce the overall CO2 levels even more.

9) We need to abolish the difference between suburbia and the inner city for the purposes of lessening transportation needs. The less people have to move around, the better it will be for our environment.

10) Most importantly, we must educate children in our schools about the dangers of climate change. The more they know, the more they can help contribute to our efforts.

A few things you can do personally to help:

a) Minimize the time you spend in heavy activity (e.g. exercising). This heavily increases the rate of respiration and releases much more CO2 into the atmosphere. There was no global warming in the earlier ages of human existence, and they moved about quite a bit less than we do.

b) Refrain from drinking soda or beverages that come packaged in such cans. The CO2 contained inside of such things is simply one more source of damaging greenhouse gases.

These changes are a grudging decision we must make, and hopefully our nation soon becomes accustomed to its new habits and we can release the restrictions. We must be willing to step outside our political boundaries if we are to find a solution. Join us in our goal.