Burp! It's Carbon Belch Day

Carbon Belch Day? Yeah, that’s what I thought too. Rude body functions aside, Carbon Belch Day is the brainchild of Grassfire.org, a conservative grassroots organization. There’s no burping involved –at least not in the traditional sense. Grassfire.org’s president Steve Elliot explains, “It’s time for Americans to purge ourselves of the false guilt that Al Gore and the Climate Alarmists have placed on us.” They are hoping that America will join them June 12 for a day of unapologetically leaving the lights on and shamelessly cruising around in gas-guzzling SUVs.

Some other suggestions to celebrate the impromptu holiday:

• Host a barbeque
• Light a campfire
• Drink beer and bottled water
• Eat meat for at least two meals
• Leave your computer on for 24 hours
• Watch television
• Smoke cigars

According to Grassfire’s website, over “110 million pounds of CO2 have been set to be released,” with the average American weighing in with 41 pounds. (Calculate your Carbon Belch here.)

Whether or not I believe that global warming is as severe as An Inconvenient Truth makes it out to be, it comes down to economics for me. I can’t afford to release as much gas as Grassfire.org would probably like me to. InformationWeek’s article on the topic probably sums it up the best: “…whether or not global warming is real is beside the point. Skyrocketing fuel costs are forcing businesses to cut down on energy consumption in as many ways as possible. As a result, it's unlikely many will decide to ‘belch’ away hard-earned dollars on June 12.”