The idea that climate change is “far off” is indeed unfortunate. It excuses the United States from its claim to indulge itself. Utterly. With wealth and ridiculously so. They measure their progress by how much a presidential candidate may spend. By how close to suicide its celebrities can be driven. But for most it is the daily drudge of meeting the obligations life lays on you. Not understanding that what used to be a score card in a game you could lose was now your bank account.
For most however falling back on credit is not really going to do a whole lot, as there is no possibility that payment will proceed. It is as though the Bush Administration looked at what they had inherited and decided unanimously that it was not taking enough risk. Bushnomics is to reduce taxes and spend up huge on military wastage. It will take a generation to recover from, we keep hearing, but the idea that it has hastened certain economic doom and risk human extinction seems more like where its headed.
Climate change is immediate in economic terms. Damage from increasing unpredictability is just the wave building up. We have to face the fact that are are doing nothing about climate change; and if the USA elects McCain it is likely that the incredibly useless Iraq war will escalate, thus forcing more carbon into the atmosphere. The eventual result of that is non-recovery from the changed condition it may inflict – real global warming – that may take thousands of years to recover from – but that is only if McCain were to escalate the war.
We as a race, a human race, work best when we have hope.
It is necessary to have a thinker who understands how to improve the situation at the top. A tough US president who seeks to fool his opponents into surrender was tried already; with disasterous consequences, by Nixon threatening the Soviets with Nuclear attack and flying laden B52s up their way for twelve hours. Kiss the ground.
It is also necessary to have a person who understands the mutual effects of progress. It is perhaps a pity that Hillary Clinton went a little negative attack in this race, as it makes here look bad. Obama is at least an extraordinary opponent for anyone.
And that is his strength. He holds the key to unlock the deadly way of the American mindset that so devalues their currency and price to the rest of us. But that is not the crisis that the incoming president will face.
It will be the starvation and disease causing population decreases in some parts of the world, spreading like deserts into their own community. Unless they sit up and change their war making polluting ways, we are all bound to be annihilated by arrogance.
