Al Gore wrote an article in the New Republic this week making an interesting connection between the oil spill and the continuing polluting of our atmosphere with carbon dioxide (thanks to Jason Scott for sending me the link).
I suggest everyone read this piece. It’s an important wake-up call. Here are a couple of the most cogent quotes. First, comparing the spill to the CO2 “spill” into the atmosphere…
The continuing undersea gusher of oil 50 miles off the shores of Louisiana is not the only source of dangerous uncontrolled pollution spewing into the environment. Worldwide, the amount of man-made CO2 being spilled every three seconds into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding the planet equals the highest current estimate of the amount of oil spilling from the Macondo well every day. Indeed, the average American coal-fired power generating plant gushes more than three times as much global-warming pollution into the atmosphere each day—and there are over 1,400 of them.
Second, the reason we have so much trouble understanding the climate issue…
One important difference between the oil spill and the CO2 spill is that petroleum is visible on the surface of the sea and carries a distinctive odor now filling the nostrils of people on shore. Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, is invisible, odorless, tasteless, and has no price tag. It is all too easily put “out of sight and out of mind.” Because the impacts of global warming are distributed globally, they often masquerade as an abstraction. And because the length of time between causes and consequences is longer than we are used to dealing with, we are vulnerable to the illusion that we have the luxury of time before we begin to respond.
I also read last night the first chapter of Bill McKibben’s very important new book, Eaarth. It’s a long look at what’s happening to the planet today. As McKibben says, climate change is not a future threat, or a threat of any kind…it’s reality. We’re living on a new planet, he says, and it’s not one we’re used to. I can’t do justice to all the facts he throws into the ring, so I’ll just say, please read this book. I’ll likely come back to this when I finish the whole thing (which I sure hope will get more positive).
We all need to get more educated on the nature of the challenge and look facts in the eye…
