Preview to State of the Union address
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Posted on January 23, 2007
Filed Under Global warming/Climate change, Deep ecology, Greenhouse gas emissions, Ecological hope, Fossil fuel dependency, Environmental disasters, Earth spirituality
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
One of the more hopeful signs regarding global warming is how quickly the debate has become front and center before the US public and the political culture. Credit to Al Gore and the popularity of his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. But also credit to all those environmental groups and initiatives out there that paved the way for this. With the Democratic win in Congress, there are surely more doors open not only for debate, but actual policy changes.
So in looking for a good preview for Bush’s State of the Union address, in which his spokespersons have said he will highlight new initiatives to address climate change, I found this very good background piece from today’s Financial Times. [Folks, you have to pay for this article, BUT you can also sign on for a free 15-day trial, which will give you access to it] It lays out the political background to Bush’s shift on this issue — a year ago he was still denying that science had proven that humans were inducing a sharp rise in global temperatures.
…the fact that Mr. Bush will be talking about a linkage is one of the clearest signals that he feels the need to defend his efforts to cut greenhouse gases and address his image as a climate change skeptic, impassively looking on as the earth warms.
But what efforts are their to defend? Voluntary programs to cut emissions? Verbal support for alternative clean and/or renewable fuels? Meanwhile, his presidency has wasted 6 vital years to get anything truly meaningful done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Just for some perspective — the US, with 4% of global population, produces about a quarter of the total global human-caused carbon emissions. The onus of responsibility on us to take drastic action is, well, enormous.
Political pressure on Bush also comes from the many states that are taking up global warming policies on their own. Among them, the state of California and its Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnie has even begun his own foreign policy on the issue, reaching an agreement on carbon trading with Great Britain. Northeastern states have formed a Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative setting up a carbon trading regimen. Other states are considering something similar.
Again, I doubt that carbon trading will do the job, and there are some serious issues about whether it is effective, just and fair [more on this in another blog], but the debate is a step forward and allows us to keep on pushing the envelope wider and wider.
To add to your pre-State of the Union enjoyment, you might also read this column from the FT, How Iraq and climate change threw the right into disarray [This one is free]. It describes how the right lost its credibility by coming out on the wrong side of two of the most important issues of our time.
So, happy viewing tonight! I’ll be watching with friends — so that we will be able to groan out loud together.
By the way, won’t it be sweet to see Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi sitting behind him, looking over his shoulder, all night long?
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2 Responses to “Preview to State of the Union address”
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Dear Margaret,
Your skepticism of carbon trading reminded me of an interview I stumbled into on Canadian radio yesterday with Kevin Smith whose new book is “Carbon Neutral Myth: Offset Indulgences for Your Climate Sins.” WOW!
Peace.
Sheila Murphy (new e-mail address)
Thanks Sheila.
For those interested in following up, read what Kevin Smtih has to say about carbon offsets here:
http://www.carbontradewatch.org/news/0612_carbon_cop_outs.html
A quote:
“Social change is a necessary precursor to dealing with climate change.There is an urgent need to restructure society away from the fossil fuels-based, carcentred, throwaway economy ‘business as usual’ scenario to one in which we pragmatically reduce our emissions levels in the context of a renewable energy-based, participatory, diversified transport, reuse/recycle economy. No matter how many low-energy light bulbs you install, or how much recycling you do, there is still the need for more systemic changes to take place in society. No amount of individualistic action is going to bring about this change in itself.
“Such changes will not happen without community organising and collective political action.”
On the problems with carbon trading, there are many resources. But here is a good description of the problems and a taste of the debate:
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/12/3/13597/2556
Margaret