Credit Meltdown More Important then Environment Meltdown?

            I know there is an economic meltdown going on in the global credit markets, but it will pass. What is not going to pass is the real-life global meltdown known as global warming.  You have to go to the back pages of the newspaper to find out that the North Pole was almost totally free from ice this summer.  This was the second time in recorded history (last year being the first time). 

            I fear that global warming is too big, too complex and too hard to solve, and that the world leaders will focus on easier problems to fix, like the crises du jour spreading from Wall Street or the melamine scare in the China dairy industry.

            The fix for global warming requires a massive shift in how we humans live on this Earth.  It will require sacrifice from the world’s richest nations and meaningful participation by the world’s developing nations.  It will also require an honest admission of facts by nations like the US, India, and China.  The US has to admit and deal with the fact that on a per capita basis, no country comes close to the US in contributing to global warming with its CO2 emissions.  India and China have to acknowledge that in terms of total CO2 emissions, each country is, or will soon be, the world leader in CO2 emissions even passing the US in total CO2 output. It is tempting for each nation to drag its feet in this area and hope the “other countries” do something about it so the cost and sacrifice is shouldered by others.

            It is time for the United Nations to get more militant on this issue.  It is a global problem that requires a global response and for those countries that refuse to get serious, they should be punished.  Countries that do not get serious must be shunned by the rest of the world body—economic sanctions, expulsion from world bodies and trade agreements, should be used as the stick to get countries involved. 

            As citizens we need to elect leaders that promise to get serious about this issue and if they don’t, they must be held accountable at the polling booth.  We need to get going on this issue, time is running out.  Let’s not become one more species that had its day on Earth—our stay has been too short.  We should shoot for a longer stay—like the cockroach, 20 million plus years.  Let’s get involved!

 

 -peace