Today at the United Nations, a U.S. President who's already in a big domestic battle over health-care reform took on another "hot" issue.
"Irreversible catastrophe" is ahead unless world leaders take "strong measures" against global warming, Barack Obama said.
Sadly, there's still considerable opposition in the U.S. to policies that would help curb greenhouse gas emissions.
As a science blogger so ably detailed last month, opposition to health-care reform has much in common with climate change denial in the U.S.: mendacious PR firms, Astroturf organizations, and constant disregard for the facts.
Up here in Canada, reasonable citizens can't feel good about their Prime Minister's history as a climate change denier who described the Kyoto Accord as "a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations."
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
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8 comments:
Good one, Stimson. I was appalled to learn that here, the US Senate plans to put off work on climate change legislation until next year. Because next year is an election year (House and 1/3 Senate), GOP partisanship will be even uglier than normal.
Yeah, that'll be awful. The big drawback to two-year HR terms is that it's almost always election season in the USA.
I will never understand conservative opposition to the global warming phenomenon, either here OR in Canada. Beyond the self-interest of polluting industries which cause global warming, their lobbyists, and their friendly representatives in government, it makes no sense at all to dismiss environmentalists aswild-eyed radicals (they aren't) or eccentric kooks, especially since the well being of the entire world could very well be at stake. How ignorant, hostile, and short-sighted can some people be???
Thomas Friedman has often struck me as a bit of a jackass, but I agree with him when he says the common conservative position on climate change makes no sense:
http://stimpsonwrites.blogspot.com/2008/12/fossil-fools.html
Jack, you're forgetting the religious component of conservative thinking. Since Supply-side Jesus is about to rapture Republicans, what does it matter if us evil folk have a fouled world?
TomCat,
Man! Those people are completely out of their minds, aren't they?!
Tom and Jack: Oh yeah, there's a whole lot of crazy in Xtian conservative circles. Like, 31 flavours at least.
But if someone really believes that rapture stuff, so none of this matters to him/her, then why not just go the whole Jehovah's Witnesses route and stay out of politics? I sure wish they would take that attitude and just take themselves out of the public discussion.
I did not know that about your PM Stimpson.
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