Tuesday, September 23, 2003

What more evidence do you need?

Remember when Bush and his cohorts trotted out all that bullshit “evidence” about Iraq? That it was so important that we had to invade immediately, without waiting for the “ground truth” via UN weapons inspections? Where is that resolve, when it comes to much more important matters like global warming?

Much recent evidence, viewed in isolation, suggests regional warming and rainfall patterns changing. But when viewed together, they fit the pattern suggested by computer models of global warming to an alarming degree (pun intended ;-). The ice shelves off the northern tip of Canada have just broken up for the first time in at least 3000 years. The jet streams are rapidly moving towards the poles, it’s begun raining regularly for the first time in 6000 years across the southern Sahara, and the dry Saharan heat moves into Europe, killing thousands. It hardly snows at low altitudes here in Oregon anymore. These are not just regional variations. This is what global warming looks like.

Where is that famous resolve, the ability to do what must be done, to sacrifice for the good of all, that stands at the heart of what America once was? When will the U.S. be dragged, kicking and screaming, to sign the Kyoto Protocol? Where are Bush and his cronies now? Like a bunch of ostriches, mooning the world while their heads are stuck in the sands of the Middle East, rooting for more oil to add to the problem…

- Bob Woods