TV Lineup and Lines Below

Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

Well, the first BCS standings are out and it looks good for the SEC with Florida No. 1 and Alabama No. 2.

In the previous 11 seasons in which the BCS was used to determine the teams that would play for the national championship, either the No. 1 or No. 2 team in the first standings of that season has gone on to play in the title game — six times for the top team, five times the second place team. And yours truly wouldn’t be surprised if the Tide and Gators had a rematch of their SEC championship game in the BCS title game.

Barring injuries or unforeseen circumstances, it looks like the Florida and Bama should roll into the Georgia Dome undefeated.

There are five SEC games on this weekend’s slate, all of them important, but none bigger than the one to be played in Tuscaloosa.

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Events Planned at Birmingham Southern College

A group of college students representing Birmingham-Southern College’s Students Engaged Actively in Environmental Issues and the Coalition of Alabama Students for the Environment will host a Climate rally at the college’s new Urban Environmental Park Saturday, Oct. 24.

The event is part of International Climate Action Day, where hundreds will gather to support 350.org and Oxfam America, groups calling on world leaders to take action to curb climate change due to global warming from the practice of humans burning fossil fuels for energy.

There will be an iconic picture taken that will be posted on the national organization’s Web site, as well as shown in New York’s Times Square and other places.

The event has attracted co-sponsorship and support from national non-profit activist and awareness organizations and state-wide environmental action groups such as the Alabama Environmental Council and Energize Alabama. The event will bring together a community of national and local environmental experts, university leaders from BSC, University of Alabama-Birmingham and Samford University, neighborhood associations and other groups.

Alabama’s political leaders have been invited to attend and share their voice in what Alabama’s government is doing to address this important issue.

Arrive no later than 11:30 a.m. for the photo, with speakers and green fair to follow.

For more information, contact Ben Tracy at bdtracy@bsc.edu or 404-713-1956, or Michael J. Churchman, executive director of the Alabama Environmental Council, at 205.999.5328.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that Americans seem to be cooling toward global warming. Just 57 percent think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years, a new poll shows. And the share of people who believe pollution caused by humans is causing temperatures to rise has also taken a dip, “even as the U.S. and world forums gear up for possible action against climate change.”

US Belief in Global Warming is Cooling

But activists say if the public wants to be apprised of the facts, they would be better off reading this account from The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry:

Can a Reasonable Skeptic Support Climate Change Legislation?

I can say without a shadow of a doubt, after many years of covering this issue and studying it as an academic, that the climate is already being changed by global warming. Anyone who is still in the skeptic camp on this may as well head for Alaska and hang out with that dimwit Sarah Palin, who will never be the president of the United States. I will bet an entire truck load of Yuengling Black and Tan on that…