|
Time to solve global warming
problem
By Jen Beasley
September 28, 2007 | There are two kinds of nations
a-romping on the world playground. There are those that
apologize when they've made a mess, and there are those
that persist in wallowing in their own filth.
A member of the second club since our refusal to enact
the Kyoto Protocol, the U.S. has engaged in a fine display
of immaturity on the issue of global warming. Kyoto
required a collective reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
by 5 percent from 1990 levels by the year 2012. Thirty-six
industrialized nations found it reasonable. But the
biggest kid on the pollution playground said it would
give the economy an owie. Ironically, the very notion
of reducing them actually led to a swift increase in
U.S. emissions, arriving in the form of a shrill "But-China-and-India-Don't-Have-To!"
whine.
Which led to the U.S. two-step plan to combat global
warming:
Step one: Suck thumb.
Step two: Sit on it.
No wonder the guy stepping in is the Kindergarten
Cop. This week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (long known
for his aversion to crybabies) took polluting nations
to task for their finger-pointing and tattle-telling
at a U.N. summit on climate change, saying it was time
for each nation to take responsibility.
The Terminator called for "action, action, action."
The Decider didn't show at all, though he attended a
dinner later, and even hosted his own separate summit
on climate change at his clubhouse in Washington D.C.
At that summit, Secretary of State Condolezza Rice reiterated
the Bush administration's perspective that each nation
should volunteer to reduce emissions, dealing with global
warming "in the ways they deem best." Like ice cream
for dinner. Rice also said global warming must be approached
from an angle that will not hurt the economy.
OK. That means fixing it.
Whoever believes that solving problems is to the economy
as a sharp pin is to a helium balloon probably needs
a little remedial logic instruction. Solving problems
does not ruin the economy. Solving problems is the economy.
The observation of needs, and their fulfillment, is
the economy.
What would have become of the economy if we had forsaken
inventing the wheel to save the job of the sled maker?
What really hurts the economy is a thought environment
that accepts stagnation as a solution to problems. The
status quo. Cessation of innovation.
For those of you in the back who insist on believing
in the Santa Claus Science that claims global warming
is not real, consider that you have clearly outsmarted
the entire world scientific community, and should therefore
have sufficient brain power to find our alternative
energy during recess. No problem, right?
Global warming is a problem. We need to solve it.
The U.S. needs to start doing its homework. It's time
to wean this country from its fossil fuel security blanket.
It's time to take a little responsibility at the next
U.N. summit in Bali. It's time to clean our room. It's
time to grow up.
NW
MS |
