I picked up a couple of magazines in the airport on Sunday before a long flight and one of them was the latest issue of Time Magazine, which devoted roughly half the edition to how the U.S. can “fight the war on global warming.” Having had some time in my room last night, I was able to read all of the articles and while Time has nothing overly inventive about solving the problem (it’s not really their job anyway), it was a good overview for anyone who is looking to find out more. So for that reason alone, I’d recommend it.
Whenever I see these magazines devoting space to global warming, I leaf through them and I never seem to find any counter-points anymore. Is this because there ARE no counter-points? Does everyone realize 30 years on that this is, gulp, a legit problem? The only hangers-on appear to be the current administration, whose recent “plans” in the last 1-2 months and whose efforts to laud ethanol last year as the magic solution were, simply put, laughable end-arounds for the business of oil and greed.
Time’s most direct hit was basically saying that while your wallet may take a short-term hit if we practice some REAL conservation efforts (and it will), the benefits are tremendous in the mid-to-long range timeframe. For example, alt-energy (TM) will undoubtedly create a plethora of new jobs. This isn’t just a fad, it’s a necessity. This is not sending a man to the moon or creating the atom bomb. Those are/were focused tasks. This is an undertaking that is multi-generational. Your kids and their kids, blah blah blah. It is a chance for America to once again take the lead in doing something constructive and good. We could have had a 20-year head start if we’d focused on it in the years just after the cold war, but oil companies wield a heavy hammer over both political parties.
Instead, money is being funneled into Iraq to the tune of $12 billion per month. Yikes. Not exactly the “war” many of us were hoping to fight.