the sky is falling (again)
11/01/06 08:21
Okay, not
really, but the ice is
melting. Sure,
it’s happening very, very slowly, but the rate of
melt is steadily increasing. Those of us alive
today won’t see the end results, but it doesn’t
take much imagination to understand that it won’t
be pretty. I’ve got a good-sized map of the world
on the wall above my duty station here in the
bunker and as I look at all the island nations and
the thousands of coastal cities, I wonder where
all the inhabitants of those places will go over
the next century or two. The melting of the
Greenland ice sheet alone is expected to raise sea
levels by 20 feet.
The government of Great Britain (island nation) has issued a report detailing the expected economic devastation of global warming. Many other nations are making efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, but as long as the US refuses to get on board, these efforts are fruitless.
The reason dubya and presidents before him have kept their heads firmly planted in the sand on this one is there’s no glory to be had from doing anything about it. To really pull this off and (literally) save the world as we know it will require drastic cuts in the amount of fossil fuels we burn. The sheer wastefulness that is the American way of life will have to cease. Everything from the way we travel and move goods around the country to the way we build our homes and communities will have to be re-thought. It will be a belt-tightening like never before and the public won’t enter into it willingly.
Corporate America will fight it every step of the way. To them, any problem that doesn’t immediately impact profits is not a problem. In fact, they see opportunity here. With the Arctic ice sheet going fast, the shipping industry is already preparing to use the fabled Northwest Passage to get from the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific ocean by going around North America to the north. Some ships are already sailing the Arctic ocean in the summer. And now the oil industry is making plans to build offshore oil platforms further north than ever before.
Dubya’s stated reason for pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol was to protect our economic interests. Once again greed trumps rationality. Sooner or later, our government’s decisions have to stop being based on short-term financial outlook and start being about the long-term health of the people. Isn’t that really what government is for?
The government of Great Britain (island nation) has issued a report detailing the expected economic devastation of global warming. Many other nations are making efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, but as long as the US refuses to get on board, these efforts are fruitless.
The reason dubya and presidents before him have kept their heads firmly planted in the sand on this one is there’s no glory to be had from doing anything about it. To really pull this off and (literally) save the world as we know it will require drastic cuts in the amount of fossil fuels we burn. The sheer wastefulness that is the American way of life will have to cease. Everything from the way we travel and move goods around the country to the way we build our homes and communities will have to be re-thought. It will be a belt-tightening like never before and the public won’t enter into it willingly.
Corporate America will fight it every step of the way. To them, any problem that doesn’t immediately impact profits is not a problem. In fact, they see opportunity here. With the Arctic ice sheet going fast, the shipping industry is already preparing to use the fabled Northwest Passage to get from the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific ocean by going around North America to the north. Some ships are already sailing the Arctic ocean in the summer. And now the oil industry is making plans to build offshore oil platforms further north than ever before.
Dubya’s stated reason for pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol was to protect our economic interests. Once again greed trumps rationality. Sooner or later, our government’s decisions have to stop being based on short-term financial outlook and start being about the long-term health of the people. Isn’t that really what government is for?
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