What is the chance that St. Louis will house the largest Mardi Gras celebration in the country? Getting better all the time. According to a recent report released by the United Nations, the sea is on its way up, in accordance to sharply rising temperatures. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change convened by the U. N. and included scientists from the United States and 98 other countries. They released their findings from Shanghai, China, where the meeting was held.
In a story by the Associated Press earlier this week, temperatures over the next century could rise 10.5 degrees. This is a threat we have heard plenty of times before. The significance of the report, however, is that it contains the most comprehensive global evidence proving that this is no natural heating of the globe. The changes that we have experienced and that we are going to experience are caused by us, not changes in the sun or from other natural causes. The rise could trigger droughts, floods and other disasters from the shifts in the weather pattern.
As for where the United States stands on the issue, American scientist Dr. Robert T. Watson notes, “Only a few countries, such as Britain and Germany, are on track to meet their targets. The United States is way off meeting its targets.”
Yet there seems to be a mistranslation reaching the ears of our new government. It seems that the United States is having trouble processing the information that it is being sent. The United States is the biggest producer of greenhouse gases, accounting for a quarter of the world total. China is number two but has recently begun a far-reaching effort to convert coal-fired factories and power plants to natural gas and cleaner fuels. China got it, why can’t we.
The reality we face is that our current administration shares some glaring similarities to to its predecessors on the issue and seems to be ignoring evidence that shows that we hold the future of New Orleans in our hands. According to a report on the city that was broadcast on A&E late last semester, parts of New Orleans proper could be prime fishing spots in the next 20 years.
For better or for worse, President Bush has made it abundantly clear that we are going to feel the repercussions of the Supreme Court’s election of “Dubya” very quickly. Before he ever took office, his cabinet positions showed the 48 percent of those who voted for him that this will not be a middle-of-the-road administration. (Many are concerned about the conservative stances of John Ashcroft and the Joint Chief’s enormous budgets demands.) Anyone hearing the news from this report has to reflect on Bush’s choice to head up the Department of the Interior. The nomination of Gale Norton blind-sided environmentalists, who really weren’t hopeful for a pleasing choice, but couldn’t even prepare for Norton’s conservative views on our natural resources.
The choice of Norton shows that President Bush does not have our environment at the top of his list of priorities. Instead, the attention of the nation has been redirected by conversations about the energy crisis. The more times Bush says “energy crisis” the more people become desperate for a solution. The more desperate they become for a solution, the more comfortable they will become when Bush begins talking about “tapping our unused resources.” Our new unelected leader is playing on the frustration exhibited by U.S. drivers (who continue to buy gas-guzzling SUV’s by record numbers) and getting the American public to consider the impossible.
He has lead many to assume that there is no solution to rising gas prices other than to find more oil in the United States. Being an oilman, it is the greatest proposition ever. If he plays the fears and the judgments of the American people just right, oil producers from Texas to Alaska will enjoy the greatest quest for oil our borders have ever seen. How is that for some back scratching. Have we all forgotten that for decades now we have been tempted by developing technologies that provide us with fewer emissions, cleaner burning cars and more efficient electrical production? Yet, all of those great discoveries seem to just melt away into the archives of research journals.
No administration has yet shown the responsible leadership that it will take to make these advanced systems we use every day. Our leaders refuse to break away from the influence of big oil, and the Big Three auto makers.
As far as I’m concerned, the timing couldn’t be worse for having an wealthy oilman in the White House. Say what you will about Al Gore’s sporadic environmental policies, but at least he had one. We are reaching a critical time as a global community, and nations are reluctant to put clean air over big profits, yet at the same time, we are about to face the direct consequences of our behavior. The world is looking for a leader, and who better than its superpower. But November’s disaster has left us miles behind any advancement we may have made.
Let us hope, for the sake of our coasts, the phrase, “As America goes, so goes the world” doesn’t apply.
