Spirituality and Ecological Hope

Fostering Ecological Hope

Today from Margaret Swedish:

Well, global warming and climate change filled page two of the NY Times business section today.  I wanted to make note of that — the business section — though these items deserve more prominence than that.  Still, it says something important — the business community is ahead of the federal government on this looming crisis. 

But first, about California.  The state is not done yet in trying to force action from the federal government to reduce the carbon emissions that are cooking our atmosphere.  The state government is trying to set limits on emissions that corporations doing business in the state would be required to meet.

Now they have upped the ante a bit more, filing suit against the six biggest automakers “demanding that they pay for environmental damage caused by the emissions of their vehicles,” according to the Times.

This is great stuff.  It’s like the tobacco companies who knew for decades about the harmful effects of smoking, but did nothing — until the government was forced to act as the truth came out, and then suits began to be filed in court as more people died of smoke-related illnesses.

Car companies have known for decades that automobiles (trucks, too, and SUV’s) were the leading cause of carbon emissions doing terrific damage to our environment, yet  they have avoided the kind of transformation of vehicles that could have altered this long ago — 100 mpg vehicles, more hybrids and electric cars, for instance.  Now California is calling them to account for the damage already done.

It will be interesting to follow this one through the court system.  Needless to say, the car manufacturers will try to get this thrown out as fast as possible.

On the same second page of the business section, we find this:  The British Royal society, Britain’s premier scientific group, charges Exxon Mobil with supporting a campaign to discredit the science of climate change, financing groups whose purpose is to debunk the overwhelming scientific consensus regarding global warming.  There is nothing new about this story of Exxon’s campaign of deception – it has been known in environmental circles for years.  It’s the prominence of the group making these charges and the fact that it is finally newsworthy that is interesting.  This link will take you to a startling story about The Denial Industry.

Finally, just below that, still on the same page, this little piece that shows how the business community is beginning to get the idea — that climage change will be very bad for the bottom line.  Some folks want to turn these concerns into corporate action to reduce harmful emissions.

Then, one last note from today’s Times.  For all this news from the business section, I found buried deep in the front section a very small article on page 27 with this headline: White House presents plans to cut emissions.  No kidding!  Really?  And why is this story buried here?

Then one discovers how underwhelming the story really is.  The article mentions two Bush administration initiatives, one to talk with Asian countries on ‘voluntary’ efforts to curb emissions, and a $3 billion federal investment (in other words, pocket change) in new technologies.  At least one Republican Congressman, Boehlert of NY, wondered aloud why money is going to new technologies it will take decades to deploy instead of supporting those that already exist and could help address the crisis now.

It’s one thing to note that the administration realizes it must do something, given the rapidly changing political environment on the issue, but it is another to see the woeful, even pathetic, gestures it is willing to make to deal with this most pressing crisis facing our planet.