Strong Words

The San Jose Mercury News delivered the strongest editorial about global warming that I've seen in a major newspaper. You could see this coming; over the last year, with Al Gore's help, global warming has moved from something perceived as only important to "the tree-hugger set" to its rightful place as an urgent crisis which requires immediate attention. When the editorial board of a newspaper jumps aboard, you know it's crossed over into the mainstream.

Global warming is the greatest environmental threat that humanity has ever faced.

Caused mainly by the unprecedented levels of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by automobiles and industries, the rise in temperature is already starting to melt the polar ice caps and disrupt weather patterns.

The potential consequences for California are dire. At current rates of warming, state researchers project that the sea level will rise as much as three feet by the end of the century, flooding many low-lying areas and tainting important sources of fresh water like the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta. Higher temperatures will drastically shrink the Sierra snowpack that stores much of our water. They will increase smog, boost the risk of wildfires and upset California's vital agricultural industries.

The United States produces about one-fourth of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, yet we're the only major nation that officially denies there's a problem. This is the year for all of us -- government, business, individuals -- to aggressively attack global warming.

We really have seen a tipping point on the environment, one that I wasn't sure would happen in my lifetime unless the crisis was right in front of our noses (Manhattan drowning or something). There are still institutional forces against it. If the Supreme Court refuses to rule carbon dioxide as a pollutant, it'll be a fateful decision that'll take decades to reverse. We'll find out about that in the coming year. And the guys in the executive branch are still largely denying the problem.

But this is an election issue, this is a legislative issue (bye-bye, kickbacks for Big Oil; hello, conservation and alternative energy research), this is a human issue. And it's almost breathtaking how quickly it all coalesced.