Monday, December 7, 2009

Climate Change, an Update (You're Lucky to Get This Post)

Due to a full dead week here at Iowa State and a more than overloaded Blogger named Moi (not actually my name), I wanted to dive into a topic that I really care about: Climate change.

As we all know, world leaders are lined up in Copenhagen today to make non-committal and probably weak agreements regarding the future of our planet and while I know this is slightly hyperbole, it really isn't.  Here's a video about the event.

While the fanfare is all well and good, I do have to address Alex K's fear: what if we reach the tipping point?  For those of you without nerd-like knowledge of the topic, the tipping point is the point where the climate has changed enough that the effects are irreversible.  According to a recent article on NPR, the public's concern for climate change is dwindling (though not by direct choice) and with industrialized nations hesitant to jump into concrete goals for carbon emissions reductions, it seems more and more every day like the tipping point is a real possibility.

So my question for you is this: what's next?  What is the best move politically and socially for you and I and the government to take in order to prevent this catastrophe?  Is it President Obama enforcing emissions reductions on his own now that the EPA has ruled that greenhouse gases are a danger to human life?  Is it coddling Congress into another slow and arduous "bipartisan agreement" on climate change?  Should we even leave the decision to the flawed logic, swiftboating, and PR funding of climate skeptics vs. science and reason showdown?  What is next for the administration and for you and I?

Feel free to leave your comments at the front desk.

2 comments:

John B said...

This is O/T but you don't have a recent health care post and I just have to get this off my chest.

I wonder if Joe Lieberman will be happy with a clown that makes balloon animals at his birthday party, or if he'll insist on a pony? I've never given money to a political campaign before, but I already have it penciled in to give money to his Democratic opponent 5 years from now. There, I feel better. No I don't, this creep cheated us out of about half the health care reforms we so desperately need.

Ian J Barker said...

I think with the attention mongering that Lieberman has demonstrated, he'll be dressed as a pony making balloon animals at his own birthday party, as long as that means everyone will be paying attention to him.

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