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Photo by Carlos Zaragoza
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Global Warming Catches a Cold
By Bonnie Shelton, 03.01.07
According to Al Gore’s Oscar winning movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” we can expect Antarctica to be the next Miami Beach by 2050. We can also expect that Gore’s newfound notoriety, which also includes a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, means global warming is sure to be one of the key platform issues during the 2008 election.
To prove that global warming will be a partisan issue, consider for a moment Punxsutawney Phil. Each Groundhog Day, Phil the groundhog tries to find his shadow on Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa., to predict whether we’ll get six more weeks of winter or an early spring. This year, in a speech read for him, Phil blamed El Niño for high winds, heavy snow, ice and freezing temperatures in the West but not the East. Someone from the great state of Pennsylvania must have educated Phil on El Niño because he also endorsed global warming as a major problem.
“Global warming has caused a great debate,” Phil said before he predicted an early spring. “This mild winter makes it seem just great.”
The last time Phil didn’t spot his shadow was in 1999. That seems rather coincidental, remembering as how Al Gore ran for president in 2000. We will also pretend not to notice that Pennsylvania is an established “blue” state, as well as the fact that Phil is just a groundhog.
And never mind that just one and a half weeks after Phil’s predictions, weather in the Northeast averaged below freezing, resulting in major ice and snow storms. February unleashed its winter fury stretching from the plain states to New England. Indiana had six feet high snow drifts, Ohio had blizzard-like conditions that closed roadways for days and New York accumulated more than 42 inches of snow. Last October, Buffalo, N.Y., had one of the worst winter storms in 137 years of records.
What’s worse is that the issue will remain a partisan one as long as Americans are oil-dependent. Oil companies generally favor Republicans, and their lobbying pockets run deep. A reduction on oil dependency will result in trillions of dollars in lost profits, which equates to millions less in the campaign coffers. Needless to say, the right side of the aisle is treading cautiously on the issue so as not to offend their donors. A recent national survey suggested that Republicans are generally in favor of transforming the way we use energy. However, they polled 14.5 percent less than Democrats in wanting to find a solution immediately.
According to the same survey, Democrats are more interested in using wind and solar power, funding research into ethanol-based fuel and creating tax incentives for owners with hybrid cars.
If the recent conflicting weather reports are any indication of how politicians will proceed, which I suggest they are, then 2008 will be a hot year. My prediction is that the presidential election will add some unnecessary carbon dioxide to the earth, or at least further pollute us with politically-charged dialogue on global warming and solutions.
