Preferably with a busy highway underneath...
Posted on 02/13/2005 8:28:06 AM PST by rface
In the last few weeks, the world has been reminded yet again of the gravity of the climate crisis. The International Climate Change Task Force, co-chaired by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, recently declared that "climate change is a serious and growing threat, leaving no country, however wealthy, immune from the extreme weather events and rising sea levels that scientists predict will occur, unless action is taken."
And a new study published two weeks ago in Nature — documented at www.climateprediction.net — concludes that global warming could be even more extreme than previously thought.
Yet while politicians and scientists usher in such grim diagnoses, ordinary citizens are spreading hope about a clean-energy future. We witnessed this hope here at Middlebury College last month, as we hosted over 100 leaders of the new climate movement for a three-day conference: "What Works? New Strategies for a Melting Planet."
Who are the new climate activists? Well, they are not tree-huggers. Sure, a number of shaggy-haired young folks were among us last month: This is a college in Vermont, after all! But it's short-sighted – and politically unwise – to think that the thoughtful, engaged citizens who are building this new movement are just the usual environmentalist suspects. In fact, they are strikingly diverse. They are Republicans and Democrats. They are leaders in businesses and nonprofits, in churches and religious organizations and Native American tribes, and in colleges and universities. They are rural grandparents, urban parents and schoolchildren everywhere.
A sampling of the presentations from the conference illustrates this movement's diversity:
Mary Lou Finley, a former staff member of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., taught us about updating the lessons of the civil rights movement in the age of globalization and the Internet.
Billy Parish, the founder and director of Energy Action, and Jihan Gearon, the coordinator of the Climate Justice Corps, shared their successes in planting the seeds of the new climate movement on college campuses and in communities of color.
Peyton Fleming, communications director of CERES, detailed how this Boston-based national coalition of investors is encouraging pension and retirement fund managers to pressure companies to examine the financial risks and opportunities of global warming.
Peter Senge, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, offered his resounding, positive vision of a clean-energy future that will create millions of new jobs.
What unites these Americans? They understand the incontrovertible evidence on the climate crisis — a grave new form of injustice that cuts across current and future generations — and are committed to doing their part to stop it. For at some not unimaginable point within this century, we will have discarded the internal combustion engine and the coal-burning power plant. We will have created millions of new jobs in a globalized economy that is powered by renewable energy. This is a great vision indeed.
The big question is, when? Can we do this soon enough? Well, if "we, the people" care enough, appreciate the urgency enough, flex our civic muscle enough – remember Dr. King's bus boycotts? – the answer is, very soon.
Here in the United States, what we currently lack is political will, at least at the national level. But as is so often the case, this emerging social movement is being led not from Washington, but from the grassroots. At the same time, our conference portends a new kind of movement, tailored to the challenges and opportunities of this new century. Yes, climate activists will do their share of marching, boycotting and petition signing. But they are also embracing new tools and ideas.
For example, three Middlebury students, in collaboration with the citizen-based Green House Network (www.greenhousenet.org), recently announced The Flat Earth Award (www.flatearthaward.org), "a humorous effort to highlight the denial of global warming by prominent public figures." By holding to light the preposterous "climate-naysaying" of this year's nominees — including Michael Crichton and Rush Limbaugh — this online resource helps to spread the word: The climate crisis is real, and we have the clean-energy solutions to stop it.
A second, even more promising, example: A coalition of campus-based climate groups (www.energyaction.net) is now partnering with leading business consultants to launch a business-savvy, Internet-facilitated campaign that will pressure Detroit's automakers to build new fleets of climate-friendly cars. In the words of one economics major at the conference last week: "Our generation is about to buy millions of new cars. We plan to help Detroit figure out how to build the clean cars that we want to drive!" In March 2004, The Economist magazine asked: "Could the next grassroots revolution in America be over climate change?" Around the country, climate activists are declaring, with strength and with passion: "Yes!"
Jonathan Isham Jr. is a member of the Middlebury College Department of Economics and Program in Environmental Studies.
The earth has a history of climate variations, the great ice age comes to mind. Next all that ice melted all by itself.
Climate change is not a phony issue. It is reality and few dispute it. But liberals are wrong to assert it is human-caused. That is only a theory and only time will tell if it is true. Factually, we are in the most mild period ever climatically. Ice core evidence shows that before the modern era, climate change was swift and violent, causing animal extinctions and death to some groups of peoples who were not adapted, such as the Christian Viking settlers in Canada. I really don't see how either side can assert where climate change comes from. I am fairly certain that if we do have an effect, it is minimal, compared to nature. Liberals give humans way too much credit for naturally occurring things.
How does someone so bereft of intellectual ability rise to the prominence of U.S. senator?
And HOW in the world as a Republican? (She'd make a great pea brained democrat hack from California ala Barbara Boxer.)
AKA a SWAG.
"Scientific Wild Ass Guess"
You forgot to include the barf alert.
I believe you are correct. I agree with you.
And disrupt traffic along with the possibility the jumper could kill or injure motorists? I think not.
They can't do anything about it. Even seeding clouds is a gamble. If anybody buys their assertion that we must do something about it, that person must also buy the proposition that we can do something about it and even that we might have an idea what to do. The Weather Bureau tells us it is going to snow an inch. It is already snowing, of course, so they are not looking impossibly far into the future. By morning there is 6" on the ground. My dog suggests we counter this tragedy by purchasing another bale of straw for his kennel and let the climatologists go do whatever seems to amuse themselves, but that politicians may drift into demagoguery just to attain and retain power.
I am not sure what your point was. You say it is not a phoney issue, then go on to explain why it is a phoney issue.
You're right.
We're doomed to listen to these ijits rantings ad nauseam.
They're all like spoiled six year old kids
(no offense to six year old kids meant)
I remember talking with one of these wacko jobs with a PHD in weather changes. He told me that the Egyptians and the Romans created the Sahara desert.
SWAG, that's a good one - I like it :-)
I sure hope it warms up soon. My motorcycles are looking very lonely in the garage.
I understand what he said. But the whole reason it is a phoney issue is that we are headed towards castrophy because of man driving his SUV. I never said the climate was not changing, I just said the issue was phoney. The climate always changes.
No, what unites these Americans is
1. A belief in leftwing policies including climate and socialism. A belief that they are superior and of higher intellect because they believe each other.
2. A total lack of understanding of the use of computer models in climate predictions, a misunderstanding of the chaos of climate change and the small (if nonexistant) effect played long term by man.
Good then you two are in agreement.
Hey Phosgood, maybe Charles First will dust off his old manifesto about that "Friendly Planet" that will rescue us. Sounds like these gloom and doom libs could use a little reassuring.
BTW since when does having a few RINOs from Maine on board constitute a diverse group of people?
YH
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