War and Peace with the Environment
Since this is the list-making time of year, allow me to add a tiny trophy to Al Gore’s very full shelf: the prize for the most elegant speech of 2007.
I wasn’t sure how the politician-turned-environmentalist fit the profile for a Nobel Peace Prize, but his acceptance speech connected the dots. “Without realizing it,” Gore said, “we have begun to wage war on the Earth itself. Now, we and the Earth’s climate are locked in a relationship familiar to war planners: mutually assured destruction.”
How many Americans actually heard these words of war and peace? The coverage from Oslo was overshadowed by the coverage from Iowa. The presidential campaigns used up the oxygen that might have been reserved for the greenhouse gases.
The inconvenient truth of the 2008 election year is that climate change is still way down the dance card of most-talked-about topics. It’s ranked number 12 among Democratic candidates, and number 15 among Republicans. Of the 2,275 questions on the Sunday morning talk shows, the League of Conservation Voters counted only three on global warming.
The environment has made little more than a cameo appearance on the campaign trail. Climate showed up in the last Iowa debate at the Tinker Bell moment when Republican candidates were asked to raise their hands if they believed climate change was a real threat and caused by human activity. It got a star turn in July when an animated snowman at the YouTube debate asked the Democrats if his little snow-son would live a “full and happy life.”
From time to time, the candidates doff their carbon caps and calculate their carbon footprints. But the warming of the globe, the fact that the ice cap is “falling off of a cliff,” as scientists say, doesn’t heat up the campaign as much as paying for the education of an illegal immigrant.
Gore told the Nobel crowd, “We have everything we need to get started, save perhaps political will. ” But, he added optimistically, “political will is a renewable resource.” Will it get renewed?
When 187 countries met in Bali this month to form a climate change treaty, our country was booed and isolated. We refused to join other industrialized nations in guaranteeing cuts of greenhouse gas emissions. A frustrated man from Papua New Guinea finally told the Bush delegation, “If you cannot lead, leave it to the rest of us. Get out of the way.”
It was at the last minute that our wrecking crew of delegates compromised on a meager road map. They agreed only to work for an agreement . . . by 2009. For the first time, industrial and developing countries are on the same path, but any real action has been kicked down that path.
Today America remains the leading producer of one product: greenhouse gases. Congress finally passed an energy bill that will raise fuel standards for cars to 35 miles a gallon by 2020. After 30 years of stalling, we are moving into first gear, too little and maybe too late. Meanwhile, the EPA just denied the more ambitious attempts by California and other states to control emissions. Political will as a renewable resource?
This Christmas we had a national anxiety attack about unsafe toys. Eighty percent of our toys are made in China. But what is more dangerous for our children, the lead paint in some Chinese factories or the fact that China’s emissions may soon surpass our own? What’s worse, that we are China’s biggest customer or their worst role model?
Meanwhile, did you have a green Xmas? A blizzard of faux environmentalism coated the holidays. The upscale Barneys store touted “sensationally sustainable swag” and “orgasmic organic denim.” We were told we can shop to save the world, consume to sustain the Earth. Or maybe you got a ticket for the new, hip “tourism of doom.” Go see Mount Kilimanjaro while there is still a snowflake, and the Arctic while there is still a polar bear.
In 2007, consciousness rose with the thermostat. Scientists layered one set of facts on another. Gore wrapped these facts into an attention-grabbing movie. After Bali, the world’s leaders are just waiting for this presidency to pass. But we are still waiting for the renewable energy to fuel election-year politics.
On the day Gore spoke to the Nobel audience, he said, “we dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer . . . We are what is wrong, and we must make it right.”
I still have a stack of greeting cards wishing Peace on Earth. Is it too corny to wish that we begin the new year making Peace with the Earth?
Ellen Goodman’s e-mail address is ellengoodman@globe.com.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company
I’m not waiting for the politicians to lead on this issue.
Polluters own the political process.
We all have to be the leaders on this issue.
Be an example. Motivate others.
“The question is whether any civilization can wage relentless war on life without destroying itself, and without losing the right to be called civilized.
“By acquiescing. . .who among us is not diminished as a human being”
- Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Humans take Nature for granted.
I have trouble with the world “environment” because it is a science word and it tends to be cold and disconnecting. There is you and the environment. Everyone is connected to the environment-merged into it–there can be no separation.
Humans are arrogant and inflicted by the disease of human supremacy. they just think they are better than others(other humans, other species etc).
I believe it was Paul Watson who said humans are more outraged when a statue is blown up or some other man made item than they are about something natural.
I really doubt anything will be done about global warming. Likely people will stall–things will get worse–and people will react by fighting for the last resources or using nut science to try and fix the problem created by greed and science.
I dont think it will be the end of the world though–humans jsut like to flatter themselves into thinking that they keep the world running. Without humans, the world will do just fine. That’s evident from watching flowers blossom and insects going about their daily activities.
It appears to be a little-known fact that Friends of the Earth has endorsed John Edwards for president.
http://action.foe.org/content.jsp?content_KEY=3348&t=FoE_Action_PAC.dwt
oh no,ms. goodman…not algore,again !!the real feather in his cap,is his knowledge of the h.a.a.r.p. program generated from alaska and wreaking havoc on the globe of climate change.at the end of his ‘an inconvienant truth’ algore states that humans can achieve zero carbon emissions…dont you realize the scenario is only possible if we all are dead and not breathing out our natural by-product=carbon emissions?al gore is an avatar and altho i have had the deepest respect for you,over the years, you may be a ninny.
Thank you Ms. Goodman for keeping Al Gore’s message alive as any hopes of him running for President have faded.
I am always wowed by the eloquence, intelligence and persuasiveness of Mr. Gore, which is in sharp contrast to the rhetoric that usually spews from mouths of politicians.
How disgusting to call this cum laude Harvard graduate a ninny, seraphicmom. He is smarter than you, I dare say.
P.S. zero carbon emissions are possible (although the chance is about a billion to one against it) if human population were under control and we had an adequate amount of trees. Although we would still have emissions, we would have a zero net. It makes a lot of sense to quibble over this point, considering the big picture of what Mr. Gore has done to educate the public.
kelmer December 28th, 2007 1:04 pm said:Without humans, the world will do just fine. That’s evident from watching flowers blossom and insects going about their daily activities.
But Kelmer, there are a hell of lot less insects every day so…………..?
A healthy environment is everything.
This article affirms a very important point about the current election: politicans are still sleeping and the sheeple are more concerned about looks over substance. Our world is undergoing profound transformation and Clinton, Edwards, and Obama pay lip service to the problem.
The EPA was chartertered by Richard Nixon as a non political agency to protect and improve our environment. It functioned as was intended (even during the Regan years) until this administration converted it to another tool for the special interests.
Blame for the recent blockage of California’s pollution and effeciency standards, as well as other outrages, by this administration falls on: The moran voters who helped this administration steal the elections; The five Supreme Court justices who betrayed principal for politics and planted this unfit person in office; and Our legislators for tolerating these unprecedented abuses.
Every bit of data on the economy is treated as if it is the only thing that our lives depend on. Housing, GDP, growth, retail sales, durable goods, unemployment……………etc. The list is endless. The environment that we depend on for our existence get little attention and respect. Without a healthy environment and natural resources the economy means nothing. Wake up the sheeple.
Bali & Related Misinformation
For seven years, this unelected president has sold us out by invoking unprecedented blockage of progress in vital global warming mitigation and related environmental reforms through deception and manipulation of science–not to mention outrageous deprivation of hope from millions with incurable diseases by his zealot obstruction blockage of stem cell research, this misguided war, and the list goes on. He has corrupted the EPA which was chartered as a non political environmental watchdog, by President Nixon–and it functioned as such until this administration.
Now without shame, in his 12/20/07 press conference, he states that our recent watered down requirement to increase the average fleet mileage standards to 35 mph (sic) by 2020 reflects the US lead in mitigation measures to curb climate change–after rejecting Kyoto and stalling progress in te Bali conference, and even blocking nearly half of our population from setting more effective standards.
Despite the horrific consequences of his policies, he cannot be blamed . Instead blame falls on the apathetic and unlearned voters who helped his team steal the elections, the five supreme court justices who placed politics over principal and planted this unfit person in office, and our legislators for allowing these outrageous actions against our planet.
People need to be shown a trendy painless way to be green. The old saying is going green saves you money and by the way…also saves the planet. Self interest trumps just about everything else in America.
Once the solution is available at Sears, all your neighbors have it and it is made in China cheap, then people might consider it. But ask them to sacrifice for the good of all and see them stare back at you with disbelief.
Witness the politics that has succeeded since Reagan. The politics is take care of yourself and the heck with everyone else. No politician will ask you to sacrifice for the good of others, if they want to get your votes.
SJC_1 - Yes, right on target. If the politicos want to maintain any votes … they’ll never raise one’s taxes (directly).
That’s why the bankers use the hidden taxing of inflation, through central banking (Fed w/o Reserve), to hide the financial rape of America.
The other end of that ongoing (perpetual) rape, is the new form of T A X A T I O N _ w/o _ R E P R E S E N T A T I O N. Remember the founding father’s Boston tea party? The bankers are back bigger than ever, with the FED RESERVE, which control the money supply, and tells Congress how they’ll get the billions they need for the new Wars (plus usury), by borrowing against futures generations of Americans, yet to be born.
Wage slavery just like the feudal days, and indentured servants, are our children’s future.
The new slogan for 2008 transformative elections:
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