The fact that the US pulled out of Kyoto irritates me to no end. Was it a perfect treaty? No. Will it solve the problem? No. Will it cost some money and take some effort? Yes. Is it a step in the right direction? You bet.
CNN reported this today. Nothing new in there except for the fact that pretty much everyone who knows what they are talking about agrees that not only is global warming happening, it's happening fast, and is going to have catastrophic consequences.
Sure, terrorism is a big deal. Yep, the rate of economic growth is a big deal. So is health care, and social security, and the tax code, and all that. But let's see what happens when the sea level rises by a few feet. I'm looking for where I saw it but some insane number of people (millions and millions) live within a few feet of sea level. Now that's a big deal. Probably the biggest one around.
But what is it going to take for folks in the position to do something about it to, well, do something about it! Of course, I can buy more fuel effiecint cars, and I can recycle but I can't mandate better fuel economy or develop new clean energy technologies. Last time I tried to build a fusion reactor, it wasn't pretty.