What would YOU be willing to sacrifice to save life on earth?

Global warming is for real, you know.

But that current hysterical claim by Al Gore, that we must take drastic steps to reduce green house gases or we face an eminent atmospheric boil-over is backed by very little hard, scientific data. The dramatic claim actually is based on theories supported by highly sophisticated computer models.

Those theories are credible. But they are not proven fact.

They certainly indicate we should closely monitor actual climate data for unusual changes. And the theory, alone, is sufficient reason to develop better alternatives to fossil fuels.

But "extreme" global warming is, nonetheless, more an Environmentalism conspiracy theory than proven, scientific fact.

Hollywood gave the former vice president an Oscar, placing his film, "An Inconvenient Truth," alongside other great science fiction movies where it belongs.

Nonetheless, the planet is warming over time. The few remains of the glaciers that once covered so much of the Northern Hemisphere are still melting. The sea level has continued to rise for the past 5,000 years.

Samples of core ice from Greenland have air molecules trapped in them from the distant past, allowing scientists to estimate air quality and temperatures from those bygone times. The samples have shown we are living in a relatively, and usual, stable climate period. But those samples also show it hasn't been that way for most of the time humans have existed on earth -- wide swings in temperature have occurred, sometimes only decades apart. And there's been a slow increase in temperature since before man discovered fire.

So the earth was warming before we became adept at polluting our air. Still, we must be contributing bunches to the problem, so by all means, let's continue our efforts to protect our air, water and ecosystems.

But we don't need to turn off the lights and move back into caves.

Sell a better light bulb than Edison's early technology and people will buy it. Sell a car that runs more economically on some alternate fuel source and people will buy it.

We're discovering smarter ways to be, using waste and recycling instead of less-efficient methods of living our lives.

Allow the government to subsidize new technologies, at the most. But calls for draconian measures to control CO2 emissions aren't warranted by the data. We don't need any eco-Nazi state to monitor and control our consumption and wastage.

People are becoming more aware and savvy. Consumers are demanding more products that don't ravage the planet's resources.

And that's a good thing. We're going to need every ounce of resource earth has because global warming is much, much more deadly than even ol' Al imagines, flying around in that private jet.

For some reason, all the climatologists, meteorologists, oceanographers and other test-tube jockeys have missed the real threat. But I took freshman science in high school, and have my own theory about global warming, honed over the past half century.

It's the sun.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Several top scientists already claim global warming is caused by nothing more than cycles of the sun. That's not what I mean.

It's worse.

My theory started back in 1956. Bell telephone sponsored a bunch of science shows on TV back then. One was called, "Our Mr. Sun."

Dr. Frank Baxter (I think he was a professor at UCLA or somewhere prestigious) talked with some funny cartoon characters and used some pretty decent special effects to explain everything science knew at that time about the sun.

He concluded that some day the sun would die. But he reassured the viewing public, that the sun would burn for millions of years yet.

Then he added the kicker: "Of course, no one knows for sure."

No one knows for sure? You mean the sun can just go poof any time it cares to?

My science teacher told me, "No." The sun will be around for a long time. "But no one knows for sure," he added.

Years later, I read new theories, that the sun would increase in heat and size and eventually incinerate the earth before it too expired.

None of this bothered me until Mr. Gore started going on about global warming.

Then I realized what was really happening. The sun is at the end of its life! We're seeing the beginning of the end. No one knew for sure, but I do. I've got to warn everyone.

The earth is doomed.

We've got to get off this planet and we don't have a lot of time to figure out how.

All of us can't be saved, of course. But enough can, so humans and other earth lifeforms can survive the coming solar meltdown.

We've got to build an ark -- a huge, moon-sized, interstellar space ship that can hold millions of people, selected for their genetic diversity, animals, plants and... good grief, we'll have to save samples of every living thing on earth. We'll need food, strategic minerals, water, oxygen... what a task!

And a ship like that is way beyond our technology. We'll need to unite and galvanize the entire world! We only have a couple of hundred years to develop the technologies before the sun gets real testy, and everything we've got will need to go into the project.

We'll need all the world's top space scientists -- all scientific research will have to be directed to building this space lifeboat and figuring out the closest star where we might find a new home.

This will be such a huge undertaking, it will require all of us to do without many of the simple things we've become accustomed to like fuel, food and medical treatment. Only the designated survivors and people necessary to the project should have full rations and medical care to avoid any waste.

The people who will be left behind -- the aged and sickly, the weak and disabled, people without the necessary skills or genetic makeup -- must sacrifice for the survival of the species. It will give a whole new meaning to “the meek shall inherit the earth.”

The environment won't matter anymore. We'll need to extract everything from the earth the survivors will need or might need. We'll need new factories, new industries. We can't waste resources protecting the earth while we suck it dry. It won't matter anyway: foul the water, foul the air, foul the land. Whatever it takes for us to save a vestige of earth's life before Sol fries the planet.

Earth is our home; our mother. But if we don't wring every last drop of resource out of it to escape, it will be our funeral pyre.

But people will have to be completely convinced that the end is near, or they won't make the needed sacrifices.

I've got to convince Al Gore of the danger. He can convince people that global warming is real. He can convince them global warming is dangerous and we've got to act now before it's too late.

Will he believe me without any evidence? Does he even believe the stuff he's pushing now or is it just some cynical, political ploy playing on the sympathies of the far-left environmental movement just for another shot at the Oval Office?

Of course he believes it. And I'll convince him of the even greater threat.

Fortunately, he's easily convinced. Back when he was vice president he thought Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was seeking nuclear weapons.

Besides, my lack of evidence won't matter because the story sounds good and can spread worldwide panic... and it would make a heck of a movie.