A monster storm is hitting the east coast and our presidential candidates have said nothing about climate change and global warming. None of the debate moderators bothered to ask them about it. We seem to be a nation with our heads in the sand.
We have made some progress, though. Some deniers have moved from saying global warming is a hoax to admitting it is real while still refusing to admit human beings are a major cause. They think it would be giving in to liberals to accept the truth so they will never fully acknowledge reality. You would think a few influential political leaders would have better sense. But they don’t. It’s as if they don’t know that all of us pay a price for allowing deniers to prevent the rest of us from changing our ways. I have often thought that deniers lose nothing if I am wrong and global warming is a hoax, but if I am right and they are wrong, we destroy the planet. Which road makes more sense to travel?
Moreover, the dots running from stunning weather changes to what we have done to the planet are there for any sensible person to see them. The average global temperature across land and ocean surfaces during September 2012 was 1.21 degrees above the 20th century average. When it comes to weather impact, that change is bigger than huge. It holds potential for being catastrophic. As one climatologist has said, “You can’t have a super-storm that’s not related to climate change…it’s impossible to have a super-storm that doesn’t have the fingerprint of climate change on it.” So the dots are there. Connecting them is the issue.
I believe denying the human impact on climate change is a moral issue. Indeed, it is an utter moral failure on the part of every American who is a denier. There is much we don’t know about climate change. There are certainly multiple factors contributing to it. But it simply makes no sense morally or scientifically to insist that greenhouse gases play no significant role in what is happening. This is especially true when it comes to coal. Obama and Romney support burning more clean coal. The only problem is that “clean coal” is an oxymoron. It is a phrase invented by the coal industry the same way tobacco companies sold the idea that cigarette filters made them less likely to kill you. It’s all a lie. Burning coal means making global warming worse, period!
The argument in favor of the status quo is, of course, about money. We are told that we cannot afford the steps necessary to change our ways. The price is too high. Think about how absurd that argument really is. It is an argument in support of money over quality of life. Soon it will be money over life itself. Does anybody really believe that is a good bargain?
But here is the irony. You know who has decided enough is enough and will no longer stand by and pretend climate change is a hoax? Insurance companies. That’s right. Insurance companies. With 25 billion dollars worth of damage caused by severe thunderstorms alone in 2011, some companies have launched a public education initiative informing people of the impact climate change is already having. In effect they are saying that we cannot afford not to have the political will to change our ways. The question is, how long will we sit by and allow our political leaders to do nothing about this serious problem.
This is, indeed, a moral issue. We have the power to destroy this planet, but as a person of faith I don’t believe we have the moral right to do so. But beyond that, it strikes me as sheer lunacy to continue living the way we live as if it can go on forever. I hear politicians and voters express moral outrage over the deficit we are passing on to future generations, but these same people say nothing about the havoc we are wreaking on the planet our children and grandchildren will inherit, a planet that may well be damaged beyond the pale because of our insatiable desire for more. That is the real moral outrage.
linnposts.com 
Do you remember the hazy, unclear pictures that were beamed back from the Olimpics in China. You are probably preaching to the choir but the choir “needs” to be international?
Makes me think of the folk song “Where have all the flowers gone” and “when will they ever learn” to which the answer so far is “NEVER.” Who said MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL? “When will we ever learn….when will we ever learn” Are you singing along? It’s very unfortunate that enough people in the world so far have not learned the truth about cause and effect. As always, Jan, you are a voice of reason. Thanks!
Rachel Carson’s 1962 book “Silent Spring” highlighted threats to living organisms, the environment and public health brought about by careless pollution and folks began to wake up. In 1969 devastation from a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, CA. forced the need for environmental protection into the national political agenda. But, it wasn’t until April 22, 1970 (the first Earth Day) when 20,000,000 people demonstrated nationwide that actual political action was initiated to eventually take form as The Clean Air Act, The Clean Water Act and creation of the EPA. That 20 million citizen demonstration was about 10% of the nation’s population at that time and those in power, public and private, responded. Movements DO move the powerful. Mass numbers of citizens have that power! However, getting those numbers tends to require a lot of persuasion, or discomfort, or fear to happen. (A very disconcerting trait!) The powerful count on that complacency to act toward selfish agendas unimpeded. When 33,000,000 or more of us are compelled to demonstrate or speak out at the same time we will see change. WE THE PEOPLE MUST DEMAND MORAL GOVERNANCE!
My fear is that we are already too late in acting in our own best interest and that the prophecy of an older, wiser, more EARTH CONNECTED culture will come to pass: “Only after the last tree is cut down, the last water poisoned, the last animal destroyed…only then will you realize you cannot eat money.” Cree Indian Prophecy.
Walking the spiritual path of righteousness and reason, I would like to think that right-minded human beings seek to promote above else the life of all things. As humans we know that our walk on this earth is only for a short time. It is our duty as human beings to preserve the life that is here for the benefit of the generations to come. Untill we “feel” connected to the earth see it as sacred, we will act to protect it.