February 10, 2007 6:14 AM

Fiddling while Rome burns

No change in political climate

By every measure, the U N ‘s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change raises the level of alarm. The fact of global warming is “unequivocal.” The certainty of the human role is now somewhere over 90 percent. Which is about as certain as scientists ever get. I would like to say we’re at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let’s just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future.

Count me among those who cannot fathom how someone can deny the reality of global warming. Yes, I understand that there are those like Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) who are willing to ignore empirical science and circumstantial evidence because acknowledging the truth would mean having to reign in Big Business. What I don’t understand is why the deniers are so willing to ignore all evidence that doesn’t agree with their preconceived ideas.

If you saw An Inconvenient Truth, you saw a picture that is nothing if not alarming. The prospects for our future, and that of our children and grandchildren, is by no means rosy. Whether or not you happen to share Al Gore’s doomsday viewpoint, though, wouldn’t it make sense to begin looking at doing what we can NOW in order to try and minimize what may happen down the road?

Depending on your point of view, global warming may or may not be a real threat. Regardless, why not take precautions and use technologies currently available to reduce the risks to not only ourselves, but future generations? If we know that coal-burning power plants create an increase in greenhouse gases, then why is Texas on the verge of approving the building of several new coal plants? Why is the US not putting pressure on developing countries to reduce their emissions? Why are we not using our technological know-how to assist these countries in meeting the Kyoto targets? And why will our government not sign the Kyoto Protocols?

I’m not a climate scientist. I don’t have the technical knowledge to fully grasp what’s happening to our world and may be happening to our future. What I do know is that we do currently have means available to try and make things better. If we had any sort of foresight at all, we’d be doing what we can to reduce our impact on the planet, which is the only home we and future generations have.

I can’t help but wonder if it’s going to take the flooding of Miami’s South Beach before we begin to come to grips with the reality that global climate change is a real problem, and one that won’t go away by simply ignoring it. By then, it could well be too late.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 10, 2007 6:14 AM.

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