The Climate Crisis

Who is About the Future

This was the "recognition" of the Climate Crisis, the new policy direction, Bush taking the lead on an issue he finally acknowledges, even long after many other authorative voices have proclaimed it the biggest challenge of our time, and a greater global threat than terrorism? Big deal. Bush mentioned climate change in one sentence in his State of the Union.

He talked briefly about alternative energy (which for him includes coal, nuclear and ethanol) and reducing gasoline consumption, but he didn't relate it to the Climate Crisis. This isn't leadership. Like on Iraq, Bush stands virtually alone, except for a few fanatical Climate Crisis deniers. This is one child who's been left way behind.

Because the slow movement towards confronting the Climate Crisis is fast becoming an avalanche. There are small indications: no fewer than 3 stories in today's local paper about the Climate Crisis, a week of recommended and front-page commentaries on daily kos, where the few that were written back when I was one of the writers were largely ignored. But also small-seeming but big indications. A poll saying that three-quarters of the American public wants mandatory regulation of greenhouse gases emissions. And on the eve of the address, a dramatic and detailed letter from some of America's largest corporations, asking for government action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions dramatically.

The letter was signed by CEOs of ten major manufacturing and energy companies, including Alcoa, General Electric, DuPont and Duke Energy. Nor was this just the statement of a general position. It was detailed and technical--as summarized by Blue Climate here. These companies want government regulation to produce something that everybody will have to do (shared sacrifice), and they want to know what they will have to do so they can plan their futures: what kind of investments in what kind of plants and equipment, for example. And they clearly want to be part of the process of creating these regulations, but this time they are asking for it in a public way.

Bush won't lead but the new Speaker of the House will. Nancy Pelosi is making the Climate Crisis a priority, and has established a new House committee to concentrate on it, despite opposition even within her party. Her statement: "It says to the American people, we are about the future."