perfidy

I couldn't help but notice that the EPA's pages on Global Warming haven't been updated since 2000. In fact, it's downright difficult to find a policy page or information page anywhere that gives the Bush adminstration's position on these issues. If you read the US government's pages, you'd come to the conclusion that little has changed in the last five years or so.

This is more "we just don't know" bullshit. I am struck by how similar this all is to debates over smoking. For today's youth it's hard to believe (and even silly) that twenty years ago the health effects of smoking were very much a matter of debate. Back then it didn't seem like smoking was good for you, but the hard-and-fast science on just how and why just never really seemed to emerge. We know now that a highly successful campaign by tobacco companies to distort the science coupled with tobacco-driven politics conspired to deprive the public of key information they should have been told, giving the industry a few more years of profitability at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

That's just par-for-the-course for corporations in general. A vanishingly small number of companies will try to do the right thing, when the profitable thing is so appealing. We need regulation to protect ourselves against harmful actions conducted in self-interest by private and corporate entities; their cost and decision equations simply do not take into account the greater good. Unless forced to, they never will.

Six years have gone by and the EPA's position on climate change is identical -- we just don't know. What's written on those pages is very much the state of the art in GOP positioning on this issue. Proclaim as loudly as possible that there are too many unknowns to make a decision, and further study is necessary.

The climate science community has shifted from arguments about whether global warming is taking place to the clear and present danger of the tipping point, something long postulated in the literature. What they're trying to figure out is, is warming occurring so rapidly that we are approaching a point beyond which we will be unable to repair the damage, should we decide to do so?

This Administration's position on climate change is to do nothing and say nothing. Based on recent news reports it appears that the administration has engaged in an active policy of suppression to inhibit the release of any scientific data or conclusions that might support serious action vis-a-vis global warming. Only by suppressing official domestic science has this administration been able to delay the engagement of the public on this issue.

Ask yourself -- are you comfortable with the idea of Tom Delay, Bob Ney, Jack Abramoff, Randy Cunningham, Ralph Reed (and their pay-to-play, bought and pair for ilk) setting US policy on the environment? Because they already have. Responsible, honest leadership is needed -- leadership that doesn't simply "stay the course" no matter what inconvenient facts present themselves.

I've described the election of Bush in 2004 as a disaster -- a turning point from which devastating consequences in the future will result. In five short years he has created a financial disaster in the federal government it seems almost impossible to repair. Taxation policies have inarguably yielded great benefit for the wealthiest, but none of the promised effects have materialized -- indeed, average wages are down relative to inflation. Bush has destroyed the credibility of the US in the international community with his "tough guy" policies and utter lack of candor. You can argue that you believe he's done what needed to be done, but the rest of the world doesn't see it that way. He has squandered the reputation of the US military, pointlessly exposing to the rest of the world precisely what the US military can and cannot do, and how long it can sustain itself. He has engendered a culture of corruption in Washington that sets new records for dysfunction.

I can't help but think that the center and left in this country are fighting so many low-level battles that we're simply losing sight of what's really important. Global warming and climate change is important. We need to study the hell out of it and figure out the best path forward. Separation of powers is important. "It's not constitutional" is the only thing standing between freedom this country's citizens enjoy and a history replete with examples of dictatorial and executive control.

The task at hand: Discover some absolutes. Find a list of ten issues and develop simple decision points for them. Hell, find three issues just to get started.