Romney’s Utterly Irresponsible Attitude towards the Fate of our Planet

[Time for change]

Mitt Romney has said a lot of irresponsible things in his life, especially during the current Presidential campaign. But perhaps the most irresponsible and ridiculous of all is this one, delivered during this year’s Republican National Convention:

President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. MY promise (audience laughter) is to help you and your family.

That statement says all we need to know about Mitt Romney. He claims to want to help us and our families, and yet he publicly demonstrates in the same sentence that he is not the least bit concerned about the warnings of virtually all reputable climate scientists in the world, to the effect that if we do not take measures to reduce the impact of climate change on our planet, hundreds of millions of people will suffer terribly in the coming years, as our planet becomes more and more unfit for human habitation.

It is not of course just this statement that characterizes Romney’s position on this issue. His presidential campaign has been characterized by a total unwillingness to acknowledge that climate change due to the burning of fossil fuels poses any problem for us whatsoever. Instead, he has put forth many plans to increase the problem by accelerating the burning of fossil fuels.


The threat of climate change and the lack of U.S. response

Brian Fagan describes the catastrophes that are likely to befall humanity if climate change is not adequately addressed, in his book “The Great Warming – Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilization”.

Today, we are experiencing sustained warming of a kind unknown since the Ice Age. And this warming is certain to bring drought – sustained drought and water shortages on a scale that will challenge even small cities… Imagine how many people might uproot themselves if the choice were between famine and food. Many believe the wars of coming centuries will not be fought over petty nationalisms, religion, or democratic principles, but over water, for this most precious of all our commodities may become even more valuable than oil. They are probably correct.

The U.S contribution to climate change is greatly out of proportion to its population. It is responsible for approximately one quarter of all the world's carbon dioxide emissions. Yet, in 2001 President Bush pulled the United States out of its international commitment to the Kyoto protocol, leaving us and Australia as the only two industrialized countries uncommitted to the international effort to respond to the climate change threat.

Effects on small islands are already being seen. In December 2006, the first inhabited island, Lohachara Island, disappeared beneath the sea. Several nearby islands have been affected as well, with tragic human consequences. Several other islands face catastrophic consequences in the immediate or foreseeable future if global warming isn’t soon halted or at least slowed considerably. For that reason, many small island nations made evacuation plans.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Organization reported 111 major hurricanes in the tropical Atlantic from 1995 to 2008, a 75% increase over the previous thirteen years. A researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research noted that “Storms are not just making landfall and going away like they did in the past… Somehow these storms are able to live longer today”.

The Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters conducted research that gives us an indication of the magnitude of the increase in severe weather events. That research found that there was four times the number of weather disasters in the last thirty years as in the first 75 years of the 20th Century.


The effects on coastal areas of the United States

Mike Tidwell referenced Hurricane Sandy in a recent article, to expound upon the coming effects of climate change on the coastal areas of the United States:

Aided by a full foot of sea-level rise during the last century, Hurricane Sandy is just the latest example of climate change’s impact on human society. Unless we rapidly phase out our use of fossil fuels, most Americans within shouting distance of an ocean will – in coming years – live behind … massive levees and floodgates… There will be levees everywhere. Imagine the National Mall, Reagan National Airport and the Virginia suburbs – all well below sea level – at the mercy of “trust-us-they’ll-hold” levees maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Oceans worldwide are projected to rise as much as three more feet this century – much higher if the Greenland ice sheet melts away. Intense storms are already becoming much more common. These two factors together will in essence export the plight of New Orleans… to New York City and Washington, as well as to Charleston, Miami, and other coastal cities. Assuming we want to keep living in these cities, we’ll have to build dikes and learn to exist beneath the surface of surrounding tidal bays, rivers and open seas…

What can we do? Three major options: (1) abandon our coastal cities and retreat inland, (2) stay put and try to adapt to the menacing new conditions or (3) stop burning planet-warming fossil fuels as fast as possible…

In truth, we must combine some level of adaptation with the third option: switching away from fossil fuels and onto clean energy. Clean energy is less expensive, less risky and overall much better for us. It’s the option that treats the disease of global warming, not just the symptoms. Only by dramatically reducing greenhouse gas pollution… can we slow the sea-level rise and potentially calm the growth in hurricane intensity.

The limitless greed of those who prevent action on climate change

Words fail me in attempting to describe how irresponsible was Romney’s show of contempt for President Obama’s expressions of concern about the fate of our planet. But words didn’t fail Rebecca Solnit in describing the most common reasons for ignoring the greatest threat to the survival of human life on our planet. She asks:

Why have we done almost nothing over the past twenty-five years about what was then a terrifying threat and is now a present catastrophe? Because it was bad for quarterly returns and fossil-fuel portfolios. When posterity indicts our era, this will be the feeble answer for why we did so little – that the rich and powerful with ties to the carbon-emitting industries have done everything in their power to prevent action on, or even recognition of, the problem. In this country in particular, they spent a fortune sowing doubt about the science of climate change and punishing politicians who brought the subject up. In this way have we gone through four “debates” and nearly a full election cycle with climate change unmentioned and unmentionable.

We need to talk about climate change as a war against nature, against the poor (especially the poor of Africa), and against the rest of us. There are casualties, there are deaths and there is destruction, and it’s all mounting… While we’re at it, take back the term “pro-life” to talk about those who are trying to save the lives of all the creatures suffering from the collapse of the complex systems on which plant and animal as well as human lives depend. The other side: “pro-death.”…

What is the great obstacle {to public discussion of climate change}? The oil corporations, the coal companies, the energy industry, its staggering financial clout, its swarms of lobbyists and the politicians in its clutches.

Honesty and concern about the accumulating effects of climate change compel me to note that President Obama’s actions against climate change have been far too little. But at least he has publicly recognized the existence of the problem, doesn’t make sick jokes that show contempt for the scientists who have investigated it and the fate of our planet, and has made some efforts towards addressing the problem – all in marked contrast to Mitt Romney. Hopefully those concerned about the future of our planet will be able to convince him to do far more in a second term. With President Mitt Romney there would be no hope of that for at least another 4-8 years.

[Fearful]

1. Romney Doesn't Care About the Destruction of Our Planet!

In the wake of Sandy and with less than a week before our national election, if people knew how much Romney's arrogant attitude toward climate change would affect this planet, this would turn in to a landslide for Obama!

[Time for change]

2. Yes.

Too bad our "mainstream" media doesn't talk about this.