When reading Ayn Rand, it is important to observe that she painstakingly redefines selfishness and altruism.  Most of us link selfishness with greed, and altruism with generosity.  But to elucidate her position that selfishness is noble while altruism is depraved, she instead links selfishness with productivity and altruism with laziness and disguised thievery.

To cement this association, it is necessary for her to eliminate in her fiction the normal associations with greed and generosity.  In her books, no altruistic characters wish to give of themselves, they only wish others to give so that they may receive.  And in her books the wealthiest who work for maximum gain never abuse or take advantage of their fellow men through greed.

But outside of her fiction it is harder to disbelieve in generosity or ignore the influence of greed.  Having worked in the non-profit sector, I know that great generosity does exist, especially in the United States.  Our generosity has not impoverished us.  However, the history of many nations, including our own, shows how greed can end prosperity.

I can agree with Rand and the right that government should not regulate so as to steal or force generosity.  But I can not agree that the government should not regulate where needed to hold greed in check.

My expectations were low but the film moved me to action in a way no other film has. It's time to take climate change off the back burner.

The first is to go to http://www.tcktcktck.org/ and sign the petition by clicking on the banner near the top of the page where it says "I am ready." Obama and Congress (or whomever is your head of state and legislative body) need to know that they have our support, that Americans are willing to sacrifice some of the comforts and indulgences we have grown accustomed to. This statistic needs to be large enough to drown out loud and well-paid lobbyists.

The second is to just plain cut back on our personal energy consumption, right now. And I don't just mean saving a little CO2 by not driving a gas guzzler while we wait for new technology that might allow us to continue our gluttonous energy use without guilt. I mean that maybe if we all turned our lights off when we didn't need them and used the air conditioner less, etc. that the demand for energy could be brought down. If we used less energy, the argument over whether to build new coal-fired power plants would become unnecessary.

Consider taking the 10:10 pledge (http://www.1010uk.org/), a pledge to reduce personal emissions by 10% in 2010. The steps that the plan asks us to take are entirely do-able. The campaign currently targets residents and organisations in the UK but the ideas are still entirely applicable to the US and elsewhere. I've taken the pledge.