Climate Change

Its a beautiful day outside today, particularly warm for early spring. I saw a item on CNN that 90 cities set new records for high temperatures today. I thought about the Climate Change deniers who were pretending like a cold winter in the Northeast with record snowfall as far south as DC somehow proved that the earth is not actually heating up. I just wonder what they will say if we continue to have record high temperatures around the country. When they then say that these high temperatures contradict what they were saying 3 months ago or will they just ignore the high temperatures because high temperatures don't agree with what the want.

It would be just funny if the opposition of people who choose to ignore clear and compelling science was not impeding our ability to respond nationally to the most dangerous envirnmental crisis we have faced in recorded history.

Will these people ever get tired of being wrong?

What happens next

69 days till the end of an error.

Our President Elect is undoubtedly getting advice from any and every corner.

Here's mine.

The day he is sworn in he can issue executive orders and accomplish much. And I think he should.

He needs to address the global economic crisis.

But what he needs to take on, boldly and immediately is Climate Change.

Nothing that the President Elect does will be as important, long term, for this country and for the entire planet, as addressing Climate Change.

In 2000, President Bush ran, among other things, on a pledge to institute carbon caps as President to address the dangers of Global Warming. One of his many lies to the American People.

John McCain supported a Cap and Trade ssytem of controlling and then reducing CO2 emissions in this campaign.

We have waited too long, wasted too much time, and the consequences of inaction are too great. We can not, should not, wait until we have fixed the economy. There is no credible dispute about humankinds contribution to the pace and eventual size of the increase in global surface temperatures. The only dispute is about how hot it going to get and how fast its going to get there.

Its clear that the predictions of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change were, if anything, conservative. All the indicators seem to point to things moving faster than those predictions.

I just finished reading what may be the most important book I have read in a very long time, perhaps the most important book I have ever read. "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Tom Friedman presents a clear and compelling prescription for radical action and for the huge economic opportunites that exist in creating the new industries that will emerge in alternative energies, conservation, more energy efficient transportation.

It requires bold and decisive leadership, the kind that a newly elected President with strong majorities in both houses can show.

I encourage anyone and everyone to read this book.

Starting with our new President.