thoughtmechanics

I’ve been getting quite a few calls recently from friends asking me what I thought about the cover story on global warming in Time Magazine, ominously titled “Be Worried. Be Very Worried.” They’re usually quite excited, claiming that this is the tipping point for the debate on global warming. This is the impetus that will finally get us moving on the issue, they excitedly remark.

To be honest, I’m not at all that excited about it. My usual response has been to yawn and politely point out that the tipping point has already come and gone. And while a few high profile people—President Bush and his top science advisor, Michael Crichton, come to mind—still don’t quite get it, the momentum has clearly shifted.

Despite a few vocal opponents such as Crichton, the fact remains that the scientific debate has long been over. It’s happening, and we’re mostly to blame. Scientists have been warning the world about global warming for about three decades now, and they’re in as much agreement about it as they are about the health effects of smoking three packs of cigarettes a day. And please, don’t waste your time commenting to the contrary—you might as well be arguing that the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood or that Elvis was an alien sent to consume the Earth’s supply of peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Come to think about it, the handful of global warming skeptics still out there have some clear parallels with those tobacco company folks who argued for so long that cigarettes are neither addictive nor harmful: they argue against overwhelming scientific evidence, they have disproportionate influence over lawmakers, and the only thing they give a rat’s ass about is their own short-term profit.

In spite of these folks, the rest of the country has already moved far beyond the question of whether or not climate change is occurring, and has started to tackle the more central question of what we’re going to do about it.

Don’t believe me? Ask big business. Ask the Pentagon. Ask the CIA. Or better yet, ask insurance companies—the ultimate assessors of risk—because they are starting to take global warming very, very seriously.

Back in early September, I attended the Sierra Club’s first national get-together in San Francisco. I was a bit late arriving on the first day, and to my surprise, showed up in the middle of a speech on global warming by former Vice President Al Gore. Funny, I thought, he wasn’t listed on the program. And for good reason—he had originally declined an invitation to speak at the convention because he had a previous engagement. He had been scheduled to speak to insurance companies that week on the effect that climate change would have on hurricane intensity; the event was to take place in—yes, you guessed it—New Orleans. The speech had been cancelled of course, as Hurricane Katrina had utterly leveled the city. I doubt they ever got around to rescheduling it—the insurance companies certainly learned all they needed to know.

But, I digress. The salient point here is that we’re finally seeing some movement on the issue. Disappointed with the lack of national leadership, city after city has voluntarily decided to reduce their carbon emissions. Consumers are buying gas-efficient hybrids like hotcakes. Groups like the Sierra Club are restructuring themselves to focus primarily on combating global warming. Hell, even oil companies are taking steps in the right direction, albeit quite slowly.

Is enough being done? Absolutely, positively not. Are we progressing fast enough? Hell no.

But the winds of change have already begun to blow.

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Post by R. Scott Jones
http://www.rscottjones.com/

Scott was a regular author on the previous Thought Mechanics and is a very bright political activist and student living in Phoenix, Arizona.

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