The President's not-so-bold environmental statement

In the face of this sort of potential disaster, the President's proposals to deal with 'global climate change' are woefully inadequate.

 

There are appalling reports that snow covers of Alpine ranges will completely disappear by the end of 2050. The new revelations are scarier than earlier ones as it predict that it all happen 50 years early, which means that we can see the live coverage of our doom.

Alpine glaciers are melting with the speed of 3 percent every year and it will cause the high paucity of drinking and irrigation water, leading to more falling rocks and shattering million-dollar European ski industry.

 

The condition of world glaciers is more gruesome as snow areas are receding about 31 feet (9.6 meters) since 1980, said World Glacier Monitoring Service in Zurich, Switzerland, which monitors 30 glaciers in nine mountain ranges across the world.

Other reports reveal that the past glacial melting occurred when atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) were 280 parts per million while now a days the this level is touching 385 parts per million.

As glaciers melt, some of the energy that the ice would reflect gets absorbed (water reflects less energy than ice), thus contributing to global warming.  Thus melting glaciers have an additive effect to the global warming problem.

President Bush did speak about the need to deal with global climate change last night (I can't help but wonder if he specifically avoided the term 'global warming' since many Republicans continue to try and sell the concept that global warming is a myth).  In that sense, it was rather like the moment when President Reagan finally specifically mentioned AIDS in a speech back in the 1980s. 

But, compare the specificity of Bush's health care proposals in his speech last night- a good proposal with specific plans and dollar estimates- with the vagueness of his comments on the environment, and what one is left with is a clear indication of a lack of commitment. 

Commitment is necessary to make the dramatic and rapid changes necessary to avert serious consequences.

All people of faith who are committed to good stewardship of the earth gifted to us should look ahead to '08 and choose a leader who will lead this commitment to a better future.

GP