The Turning

It's beginning, even in advance of the Democratic takeover of Congress. A story on the front page of today's Washington Post: "While the political debate over global warming continues, top executives at many of the nation's largest energy companies have accepted the scientific consensus about climate change and see federal regulation to cut greenhouse gas emissions as inevitable."

The politics is encouraging acceptance of the science. "'We have to deal with greenhouse gases," John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., said in a recent speech at the National Press Club. "From Shell's point of view, the debate is over. When 98 percent of scientists agree, who is Shell to say, 'Let's debate the science'?"

And these companies are acting: "The companies have been hiring new lobbyists who they hope can help fashion a national approach that would avert a patchwork of state plans now in the works. They are also working to change some company practices in anticipation of the regulation."

In an immediate sense, this began right after the elections when it became known that Senator Barbara Boxer would become the new chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, chaired under the Republicans by the extreme Climate Crisis denier, James Inofe. Boxer immediately made the Climate Crisis her top priority, and an urgent one. Said one story: There's a new environmental policy boss in town, she scowls a lot, and two of her favorite phrases are "global warming" and "extensive hearings."

Then Boxer was joined by two other incoming chairs in the Senate-- Democrat Jeff Bingaman of Energy and Natural Resources, and Independent Joe Lieberman of Homeland Security--in calling on President Bush to support and sign legislation aimed at addressing the Climate Crisis. This happened as UN Secretary General Kofi Anan called out world leaders to give urgent priority to the Climate Crisis.

Then came word that Inofe would not only be replaced by Boxer as chair, but that Senator John Warner would seek to replace him as ranking Republican on the committee, so that Warner could advocate action on the Climate Crisis.

All of this could happen so fast because the Bushites and related Climate Crisis deniers were gradually becoming a small and extreme minority, as the evidence became overwhelming, and political support for change began to grow. When even Exxon Mobil, which in tandem with Philip Morris, financed most of the Climate Crisis denying in the world for the past decade, suggested it might be relenting, resistance began breaking like the Arctic and Antarctic ice. If there are going to be new laws, especially governing new power plants, these companies want to be part of the conversation.

A lot still must happen, a lot of corporate pressure must be resisted on the details, and the Bush administration remains stubbornly entrenched in its denier position. But the Turning has begun. It can't come too soon--not with more warnings that humanity may have a decade or less to institute effective action to save the future, in a world where one report just found that, despite all the global discussion and pledges, the growth in carbon emissions is virtually out of control. When the Turning truly comes, the work can really begin--the work that will absorb the world for the foreseeable future.