This Date in UCSF History: US Fiddles As The World Burns
Originally published in Synapse on January 12, 2006.
Last month, the nations of the world gathered in Montreal to try to do something about the growing threat from global warming. At least, most of them did. The United States showed up to gum up the process and make an international fool of itself. It succeeded brilliantly on both counts.
The Bush administration — and its all-important right-wing “base” — continues in the face of a growing body of scientific evidence to cling to the notion that global warming is a myth, or if it does exist, will not really cause any harm.
That the rest of the world has had just about enough of this stance was made evident by the speech given by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin as he welcomed delegates to the Montreal meeting of the U.N. Climate Change Conference: “Climate change is a global challenge that demands a global response. Yet there are nations that resist, voices that attempt to diminish the urgency or dismiss the science, or declare, either in word or indifference, that this is not our problem to solve. Well, let me tell you, it is our problem to solve,” Martin said as he opened the conference.
When you get chewed out by the mild-mannered Canadians, you know you’ve ticked off just about everybody. Let’s review the evidence that something indeed is occurring with Mother Earth:
*Global temperatures continue to climb: 2005 is on track to be the warmest year since record-keeping began more than a century ago. Eight of the 10 hottest years on record have taken place since 1996.
*Scientists announced in September that the area of Arctic sea ice had shrunk to a new low. The scientists predicted that the Arctic would be ice free “well before the end of this century.” Think of that: no more polar ice caps.
*Last year has seen a dramatic upsurge in powerful hurricanes, and researchers at Georgia Tech report that the number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has nearly doubled in just the past three decades.
*The Gulf Stream, the great current that carries warm water across the Atlantic, is losing its power. As ice melts from Greenland’s great ice sheet, cold fresh water pours into the North Atlantic, diluting the flow of warm water in the Gulf Stream. If unchecked, the water flow that helps keep Europe from turning into a block of ice may no longer be able to serve that purpose. In fact, by any rational measurement, climate change is occurring, and it is happening because of human beings and our pollution of the atmosphere. The United States, the same country that refuses to face up to global warming, is the biggest polluter on Earth, accounting for nearly a quarter of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions.
Our new best buddy China, which also refused to do anything constructive at Montreal, is expected to pass us in spewing filth into the atmosphere in about 20 more years. The Bush administration has a policy on global warming, of course. It advocates a purely voluntary approach: If a corporation wants to cut its carbon dioxide output, it is free to do so. Of course, it is also free not to and take a wild guess which path most companies (and people) prefer.
The White House has withstood pressure from outside groups and pleas from its friends (Tony Blair has regularly been rebuffed) to do something — impose penalties on polluters, or push Detroit to build cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars, or put a mandatory cap on greenhouse-gas emissions. Mr. Bush’s answer to all these pleas is a consistently firm, “no.”
All this intransigence came to a ridiculous crescendo at Montreal, where the U.S. delegation walked out of the conference. Yes, furious that the rest of the world wouldn’t see things their way, the Bushies picked up their ball and went home. This administration’s rejection of the Kyoto Accords is embarrassing enough; its continued intransigence on the vital issue of climate change could endanger the entire world.
For now, the American right wing continues to glory in its own stupidity — the No. 1 paperback fiction bestseller in America is Michael Crichton’s novel State of Fear, which posits the strange thesis that global warming is a myth invented by an evil environmental movement. The book’s sales indicate the lunatic fringe is lapping it up.
Really, what is one to do with people like this? Blind faith is never a good alternative to scientific inquiry - but blind faith is all we are being offered by an administration — and its supporters — determined not to see.