At a time when international cooperation is more important than ever, it's hard to overstate just how out of step the United States is with the rest of the world. Instead of providing leadership, we are standing in the doorway of the future blocking an eminently reasonable attempt at self-preservation.
Few people bother to deny the problem anymore. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, for instance, noted the "emerging consensus" on climate change at the Davos conference last month.
But the U.S. energy industry continues to spend millions on lobbyists and propagandists in an effort to spread doubt and confusion on the subject. The industry, instead of putting money into research and development to come up with the renewable energy technologies desperately needed to secure both our national security and its own economic future, has mounted a relentless campaign to discredit the truth.
Of course, corporate America would not have the power to torpedo common-sense solutions to an imminent threat were it not for the complicity of our elected officials. Take Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. He has been so hypnotized by enormous campaign contributions from the energy industry that he actually had the chutzpah to say that "global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."
And what's Michael Crichton's excuse? His latest best-selling novel, "State of Fear," offers up the delusional notion that global warming is the creation of environmental groups looking to boost their profile and fill their coffers. This is like arguing that the link between smoking and cancer was dreamed up by oncologists, radiologists and funeral home directors. Unfortunately, Crichton's sophomoric fiction may be the only thing many Americans read on global warming.
The truth is that the jury is no longer out; there is no more room or time for confusion, doubt or skepticism. Global warming is real and rapidly altering our weather, our economy and our world. The 1990s were the hottest decade in the last 1,000 years, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Nine of the 10 hottest years on record occurred after 1994, according to the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization.
The arctic ice sheet has shrunk 20% since 1979. And bears are coming out of hibernation a month early, throwing off their entire life cycles.
The can't-do crowd in our industry and our government continues to claim that anything we do to control emissions will hurt our economy unacceptably. Get real!
The Kyoto Protocol is not the be-all to ending global warming, but it is an important first step. And we are spitting in the eye of the rest of the world by refusing to be part of it.
