No Time To Waste
By: Eric
Published On: 11/21/2006 12:45:38 PM
The landslide victory for Democrats this year was the first step toward righting a ship that's gone horribly off course. Our country has elected Senators and Representatives who are not part of the corrupt, incompetent, corporate sponsored, narrow-minded, and short sighted leadership championed by G.W. Bush and the current Republican party and we should all be proud of this necessary initial step.
Pat on the back. Done. Time to move on.
We tend to focus on winning the next election and setting up a strong Democratic majority and even turning Virginia blue. These are all critical goals - should they fail to be accomplished our country is at risk of falling back into the chasm of failure and misdirection brought on by Bush and his enablers.
But there's something more pressing. Something that really won't wait. Something that the current (soon to be former) leadership failed to recognize, understand, or act upon. Our country and our world are facing catastrophic global environmental change.
Today, there is a report on the extinction of many species with more soon to follow.
A few highlights:
* Animal and plant species have begun dying off or changing sooner than predicted because of global warming, a review of hundreds of research studies contends.
* Now we've got the evidence. It's here. It's real. This is not just biologists' intuition. It's what's happening.
* While it's impossible to prove conclusively the changes are the result of global warming, the evidence is so strong and other supportable explanations are lacking, Thomas said, so it is "statistically virtually impossible that these are just chance observations."
Yes, we've all heard it before. In fact, on a daily or weekly basis we hear a new report or study that shows our planet quickly deteriorating. So much so, that our society runs the risk of becoming numb to the warnings, that they are so common place that they are ignored. That's really scary.
So now is the time to act. This country has taken the first critical step, electing leaders that are at least capable of listening to these scientists and experts.
But it's also up to us. To keep an eye on our new leaders to make sure they follow through and take strong steps toward addressing the global warming problem. We've got to keep the pressure on our new leaders to work on this issue as much as we need to push to elect more Democrats.
The world depends on it.
Comments
Entirely Right (Macduff - 11/21/2006 3:47:38 PM)
You are entirely right in your comments concerning the importance of pursuing elected officials to address the global warming issue soon and broadly. The potential harms go well beyond non-human species and ecosystems. The lives of many humans--including people living in the developed world--will also be threatened. Reasonable forecasts project that potentially hundreds of millions of people will be displaced by rising sea levels; hurricanes and other forms of violent weather will become more severe; tropical diseases will expand to larger areas of the earth; rainfall and crop patterns will change dramatically; and acidification of the oceans will threaten fisheries (as if over fishing weren't enough).
In addition to the direct impacts of climate changes, there will be the all-too-common human response: armed conflicts over resources such as water, food and habitable land areas. With the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, the potential human cost of resource-driven warfare will exceed anything we have known before. Although the direct environmental impacts will hurt poor countries worst, rich countries will not escape the resource wars.
The climate-change problem is most insidious because the direct and indirect harms will materialize gradually and doubters will always be able to attribute the changes to short-term, natural variations, as has been going on for the last few decades since this issue first arose. Politicians looking for quick election victories will tell constituents that nothing needs to be done, while demonizing envirnomentalists as wanting needlessly to interfere with the economy and citizens' rights to drive the biggest cars and get the cheapest (highest polluting) energy supplies.
The danger is that, by the time we are ready to respond to the crisis the CO2, methane and other greenhouse gases will have reached levels that will disrupt the climate for decades or centuries. Our children and grandchildren will, no doubt, be greatful for our legacy.
So, pursue this issue for our sakes and the sake of our descendents. This is not an abstract issue.
Inconveniet Truth (Not Doug Wilder - 11/21/2006 4:22:31 PM)
Anyone who hasn't seen the movie or read the book is doing future generations a great disservice.