Photo of Gulf Oil slick by Michael DeMocker, The Times-Picayune

Recent headlines. See if you notice a common thread.

Central America Storm kills 113+

Strong Hurricane Season Predicted

2010:  Hottest Year on Record

NOAA reported on May 17th that 2010 is the hottest year on record globally so far from January through April.

BP Gives up on Plugging the Leak

“BP Plc said it won’t be able to stop the flow of oil from a gushing well in Gulf of Mexico until August when a relief well can be finished, and in the meantime it will divert as much of the oil as it can to surface ships.” — Bloomberg

We have two on-going environmental disasters here but they are related to one thing — our lack of a good renewable energy policy.  One disaster people can clearly see — the enormous oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.  The oil hit Alabama beaches today, and was spotted at least 5 miles inland in the marshes.  The other disaster is one people cannot see — global warming,  which also continues, like the oil leak, except no one is really doing much about it.  People are clamoring for the government to DO something fast about the oil leak.  They should be clamoring just as loudly for the government to DO something about global warming.

If you are wondering what our government is doing about the ongoing crisis of global warming and the ensuing world-wide climate change, the answer is: Hardly anything. In fact, until the oil leak, President Obama was embracing the “everything” theory of addressing our energy needs:  Drill offshore, mine for more coal, get some mythological CCS technology in place, use lots of natural gas, a few windmills, a couple of solar panels, retrofit some leaky buildings, and pray.  This is not the science-driven government I voted for. Unless a miracle happens to change politician’s minds and attitudes, they are in the process of condemning humans to an early extinction, and it seems that not more than a handful of these politicians care.   They can barely muster up feelings of anger at the Gulf Oil leak, and not enough to pull out all the stops to clean it up; to say nothing of what will happen to the entire planet’s climate  in 20-50 years.

We are not off the hook with climate change at all, but that’s how Washingtonians act.   How about we elect more scientists or at least science-oriented people as our representatives in our  government?  I don’t know where most of our politicians come from, (insert joke) but it seems like they do not have an appropriate background for what we are facing in the 21st century.   Being a lawyer does not equip someone, most likely, for making decisions on energy and climate.  Meanwhile, emissions continue to rise, and climate change does not disappear just because our politicians stop talking about it. (Wouldn’t it be nice if it did?)

Global CO2 emissions to rise 43 percent [...]