Would that the Nobel prize “would finally wake up the president.”

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Posted on October 14, 2007
Filed Under Global warming/Climate change, Ecological hope, Earth spirituality

Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:

So it was nice to see Al Gore take his share of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change. I was glad it was not only him. I was very glad that the prize also went to the work of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the combined effort of thousands of scientists and a panel working to bring together the research and all the member goverments to form a consensus around the crisis of human-induced global warming. Click here to read the IPCC’s press release. They are right: this is an award that rightfully belongs to the scientists and authors of their reports.

Not an easy task, that — bringing consensus at that level. That’s why even the dire warnings and predictions of the IPCC are considered to be on the conservative side. That’s also why their reports released earlier this year are so significant.

But, as the NY Times pointed out so rightly in their editorial on Saturday, the work of ringing the alarm bell and addressing the crisis should not have to be the work of private individuals and researchers. Addressing it at the level at which we could actually stave off disaster requires the commitment of governments. The UN is always better at issuing documents than it is at action, especially the swift action this crisis requires.

Another reason why the failure of leadership in the US is so egregious. We have wasted nearly seven very critical years since the Bush administration and his science deniers and procrastinators took the reins of government, doing everything in their power to avoid the hard decisions, the ones that will impact their corporate backers, the bottom line, the politics of the economy, and more.

What they are doing is hastening the ruination of all that we hold dear — the biosphere in which everything we care about exists. The Times editorial made note of the unconscionable foot-dragging of this administration:

There will…be those who complain that this prize…is an intentional slap at President Bush. It should be. We only wish that it would finally wake up the president.

This award represents the awakening of the world to this crisis. This alarm bell resonates loudly, and it echoes the growing fears of people around the world, including now a majority in our own country, who are aware of the disaster that awaits us.

So why isn’t this at the top of the agenda of political candidates? We must put it there. We must make this issue a litmus test for Congress and the White House. We need drastic and substantive policy initiatives. There is no more time to waste.


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Comments

One Response to “Would that the Nobel prize “would finally wake up the president.””

  1. D.Bheemeswar on October 15th, 2007 3:23 am

    It is quite interesting that Mr Al Gore has beaten George Bush for Noble peace, if not in the elections. I congratulate him for getting this Noble Peace prize. I never expect the present President will wake up. He is so engrossed in showing his brutal strength to the world wants to feel that he is the controller of the world. He has already become a pray for those people who wanted their big bull attitude to be continued specially those who fund such activities. We have to worry more about these mentally polluted people rather than the environment. Since environment has its own mechanism to clean this pollution. It gets balanced automatically after some time. But no body can clear these mentally polluted personalities, those who work with religion or race or region cards.

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