No change in political climate
By Ellen Goodman | February 9, 2007
On the day that the latest report on global warming was released, I went out and bought a light bulb. OK, an environmentally friendly, compact fluorescent light bulb.
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....
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/02/09/no_change_in_political_climate/
Hyperventilating
Bold leadership needed to avert environmental disaster
By Robert Bolman
Published: Friday, February 9, 2007
The Register-Guard's Feb. 3 editorial responding to the new report
from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ended with a call
for our leaders to act with "boldness, courage, vision and, above
all, hope." Boldness, courage and vision have heretofore been
lacking, driving me to use quotation marks when referring to our
"leaders." I encourage them to think deeply about their
responsibilities to future generations as we ponder the converging
catastrophes of the 21st century.
As you read this, ice caps are melting, glaciers are retreating and
permafrost is releasing methane and carbon dioxide. This is a result
of the greenhouse gases released as of today. If the human family
were to somehow stop releasing greenhouse gases tomorrow, the global
warming trend would continue at its current rate.
As white, reflective snow and ice are replaced by dark, light-
absorbing sea water and land, the rate of global warming will
increase. Given that humans are obviously not going to stop burning
fossil fuels any time soon, the rate will accelerate further still.
The panel's report predicted a sea level rise of 7 inches to 23
inches by the end of the century, but didn't factor in the melting of
the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Perhaps even the IPCC wasn't
prepared to ponder a 20-foot sea level rise and hundreds of millions
of refugees. While our "leaders" talk about reducing greenhouse gas
emissions to 1990 levels by 2010, we desperately need a 90 percent
reduction now, coupled with a worldwide program of forest
restoration.
Meanwhile, Matthew Simmons, chairman of Simmons & Co. International
in Houston, a close friend of President Bush and a towering figure in
the world of petroleum exploration and development, said that the
world has now reached peak oil. Modern industrial civilization has
been built upon cheap, abundant, highly concentrated liquid
petroleum. Once on the downhill slope of the peak oil bell curve,
world petroleum production can be expected to decline 2 percent to 3
percent annually.
Try pushing your car the distance you can drive on one gallon of
gasoline. Nothing is going to fully compensate for the coming energy
shortfalls. Not hydrogen. Not biofuels. Not "technology."
The human family should have begun preparing for peak oil 20 years
ago. While our "leaders" talk about slightly increasing automobile
fuel efficiency and using different light bulbs, we desperately need
a dramatic, sweeping plan to use the remaining petroleum resources to
rebuild the world's transportation infrastructure.
The attitude shared by Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury after
his presentation of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" slideshow Dec.
11 in Eugene is that politicians can't be expected to pass dramatic
legislation without broad public support.
It is historically true that dramatic, sweeping changes have resulted
more from popular movements than from bold leaders. But most
Americans are terribly uninformed, relying on a small handful of huge
media corporations to spoon-feed them nonsense posing as worthy
information.
We cannot allow our "leaders" to invoke a "lack of popular support"
to avoid doing what must be done. By the time rising sea levels,
worldwide famine and economic collapse awaken the masses from their
slumber, it will be too late.
Bold, visionary leadership on the converging catastrophes of climate
change and peak oil will take many forms. Locally, it will consist of
a halt to road building and development that leads to sprawl.
On the state level, it will consist of aggressively promoting
renewable energy industries and ending clear-cut logging. Gov. Ted
Kulongoski should partner with the governors of California and
Washington to build a high-speed rail system along the Interstate 5
corridor.
On the national level, a U.S. gasoline tax should be ratcheted up
incrementally to force people out of their cars. The Bush
administration's absurd military policy of aggravating the rest of
the world by trying to dominate the remaining petroleum reserves
should be replaced by exhibiting the true world leadership for which
we were once known. We should launch something akin to a global
Marshall Plan.
Our "leaders" know that doing these things would elicit deafening
howls of protest from those who benefit from business as usual. But
that outcry could serve as the perfect forum for educating the
people.
Business people would claim that real action will harm the economy,
but inaction will destroy the economy. We must all sacrifice now to
avoid a far greater sacrifice during the coming century.
If we truly love our children, we must find the strength to end our
denial and do what must be done. From Kitty Piercy to George W. Bush,
bold, visionary leadership is key.
Robert Bolman of Eugene is director of Maitreya EcoVillage (www
.maitreyaecovillage.org).
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/02/09/ed.col.bolman.0209.p1.php?section=opinion
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