A recent post by Jeffrey Sachs reprinted in the Huffington Post included the following warning:
"Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to mount, and will do so for years or decades to come. The Wall Street Journal, America's biggest circulation paper, rails each day against climate science. Backroom deals in the U.S. Congress with industrial lobbies threaten to eviscerate already watered-down proposals for limiting carbon emissions. A vote on the U.S. legislation has been postponed till next spring at the earliest, and a similar bill has just been defeated in Australia. The truth is that even if we reach a political agreement, we're not yet on track to achieve practical, significant and sustained progress. "
I have concerns about the increasing effectiveness of delaying tactics and disinformation efforts. I try to have faith that ultimately the American people will see these for what they are and make their own choices and act accordingly. And the choice, simply, is to take steps individually and collectively to clean up our own mess on the planet, or not.
In the end, the "debate" over global climate change must devolve into one of character and morality. Stripped to its most basic form, the arguments fall between those who on the one hand would do all they can to preserve some quality of life for those who follow versus those on the other who can not or will not relinquish any material possessions or comfort from the life they now live because that future does not involve them. For the latter, the only remaining solution is to rationalize away reality and to pretend that there really are choices.
This global conundrum has been played out in microcosm on the rather innocuous pages of an unlikely source, the Costco Connection magazine. Costco undertook to volume-sell Al Gore's new book, "Your Choice". To maximize its promotion, the publishers placed Gore's picture on the front cover of the Costco Connection and published a piece by Gore as one of the magazine's product-hyping features. In addition, (and this was probably the last straw for many consumers), the Editor of the magazine wrote a column in which he attempted to reconcile the diverse thinking of Gore and Glenn Beck, whose paid advertisement had been included in the publication as well. The response was immediate and furious. So much so, that Costco backpedaled immediately in the next issue with an apology from the editor, two pages of reprints of the emails received, and a half page article supporting "the other side of the issue" as demanded by one of the emailer s, succumbing not just to the demand, but even to the degree of choosing the 'denial scientist' of the writer's choice, the well known climate skeptic, Fred Singer! The import of most of the e-mails seemed to be, "Stick to selling products and leave politics to the politicians". Wouldn't we love to organize our lives as neatly as our iPhones, with apps for food and home products over here, politics over there, religion on the weekends, and…oh,yes!…the polluting of our living environment way over there (we wouldn't have to go there much…)! And when the chips were down, Costco, a company I have come to admire for many other reasons, reversed its ground in the interests of commerce and reneged on what had started out to be a remarkably courageous and constructive role modeling for grassroots America.
This is a conflict with ethical roots, no different to my mind than the actions of lenders and bankers during the mortgage crisis, where there was no perception of wrong-doing because there was no effort to determine if anyone was being wronged.
"The fight against global warming isn't a fight to maintain the status quo. The status quo isn't ours to keep. Change is coming. The planet adjusts, always, and so must we." Marq de Villiers (The End)
The planet, as de Villiers says, will do what it has always done, but we have a choice. Why not leave a cleaner planet for our children and our children's children?
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