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If you’ve been following the cable news cycle, you’ve seen the latest sensational headlines about the Republican presidential contest: Newt’s surge, Romney’s stagnant poll numbers, Cain’s reassessment of his campaign. Amidst the news of the ups and downs of the horse race, you may be missing some of the most consequential news of our lifetimes.
Two sobering headlines truly deserve to drown out the political back and forth:
- The World Meteorological Organization is predicting that this will be the 10th warmest year on record.
- Our planet is on track to warm by 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100, according to the International Energy Agency.
The first tells us the problem of global warming is undeniably real. The second tells us the problem is worse than we thought.
The world’s scientists are practically shouting from the rooftops. And yet, the candidates continue to play games, pretending that the science is iffy or that a handful of hacked emails somehow undermine the case for global warming. The science is clear. The thermometers don’t lie. And we are running out of time.
We are facing a serious problem. We need serious candidates. They can start by acknowledging that temperatures are surging, that weak-kneed politicians have caused U.S. efforts to stagnate, and that it is time for candidates to reassess their positions. We need a race to ramp up clean energy and ratchet down pollution. This — not the political ups and downs — is the race that really matters.
1 Comment
Thanks for posting this. Recommended.
At the outset, let me say that I strongly support the efforts of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
There are two points I want to raise in response to this diary.
First, I couldn’t agree more that climate change, and let’s call it what it really is, man-made climate change, threatens all life on the planet. The urgency to address this problem couldn’t be greater.
While I’m no scientist, however, I wonder how the NRDC interprets a recent study done under the auspices of the National Science Foundation that suggests that the rate, not the risks, of climate change may not be as great as has been feared. You can read a brief article about this study here. Understand that I am not endorsing this new study but merely asking whether others more knowledgeable than I find it credible. Regardless, the problem remains urgent and severe no matter what data are used.
Secondly, I wanted to respond to this:
Well, that sounds great. I fear, though, that it fails to recognize the utter corruption of our system by corporations and big money. When you say “This — not the political ups and downs — is the race that really matters”, I fear that the urgency and severity of climate change might distract us from our primary mission. We can’t get “serious candidates” in the current climate (sorry, no pun intended). We just can’t get there from here.
We, as citizens, whatever our critically important agendas might be, need to build a unity to take back power from a system that will never respond to requests for a “redress of grievances”. It’s not unimportant to speak out on climate change and on poverty and on racism and on militarism and on materialism and the bankruptcy of our mass media and all the other problems so many of us see. We need to raise awareness on all these things… now.
But job one, and there is just no getting around it, is to tear down our corporatized, corrupted government and restore real power to the people. How we go about waging this war is more than open to debate. We must not, however, no matter our individual concerns, let anything or any issue, or anyone, stand in our way. Until power is restored to its rightful owners, all progress, if any, is illusory.