Public distraction is a terrific way to understand why real problems are not solved. The people most engaged with American politics are too distracted by a host of terrible conditions to give priority to a looming super-problem.
Set aside your passion or depression about the sad state of American politics to make room for a global catastrophe. Two courts will be making profoundly important decisions about carbon dioxide and its role in "global warming" – and that's what true environmentally conscious people should be talking about, not "climate change." The court decisions will have a lot more impact than everything Al Gore and Bill Clinton are now doing and the billions in private money targeting global warming. Richard Branson's commitment of $3 billion to fight global warming points to the ineffective actions by the Bush administration. But the scale of global warming is so large and the sources of greenhouse gases so widespread that government action is absolutely necessary. Should be interesting to see if 2008 presidential candidates make commitments to fight global warming.
The Supreme Court will soon be hearing the case against the federal EPA. A number of states, cities and environmental groups assert that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases should be regulated as air pollutants. Of course, the Bush administration in its role as protector of the corporatist state, not we the people, wants to use voluntary actions and continued research.
Of all the possible impacts of global warming, rising ocean levels is the greatest crisis. I'm betting that Bechtel, Halliburton and many other big pro-Republican spenders already have business plans for a trillion dollar market for dikes.
Enormous, complicated dike systems will be needed along all our coastal and Great Lakes shores, because the oceans will rise enough to do a Katrina-job on our coastal cities. Just imagine the massive job of protecting New York, Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and many others. Forget prevention. Crisis management is what will channel many TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars into corporate pockets. The dike market will suck a huge fraction of the nation's wealth – more than several wars, building the interstate highway system and much more. For government contractors, it will help out when the border fence and security market eventually fades. The longer we wait the greater the eventual cost. Yet, what is the alternative? To let all these cities flood? To evacuate half the nation's population – forever? To fight global warming NOW?
If the Supreme Court goes with federal regulation, the impacts on the automobile, coal and electric generation industries will be considerable, assuming that there is someone in the White House who actually wants to regulate the greenhouse gases. Personally, I have no confidence in any Democrap president and even a Democrap controlled House doing the right thing. The money and pressure from industry to maintain the status quo are probably powerful enough to assure us a hot future.
The Bush administration argues that carbon dioxide -- unlike other chemicals that must be controlled to assure healthy air -- is not a pollutant under the federal clean air law, and even if it were that the EPA has discretion on how and whether to regulate it. On the side of a livable future is what the Clean Air Act says in Section 202, namely that the E.P.A. administrator ''shall'' regulate any air pollutant from any new vehicles that ''may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.''
There really is no more scientific uncertainty about global warming and the role of carbon dioxide. But don't think that all rational people want to prevent a global spasm. Our Upper Class surely believes that they have enough money to keep themselves cool – no matter how much heat the rest of the population is sweating from.
The second and newer court case comes from a lawsuit by California to collect damages from the six largest automakers operating in the U.S. Vehicle emissions in automobile-addicted California account for 30 percent of carbon dioxide in the air. The U.S. District Court for Northern California will decide this case. But a decision that affirms injuries to California's environment, economy and public health from carbon dioxide auto emissions will surely crawl the lengthy path to another Supreme Court decision. California recently enacted the toughest cuts in carbon dioxide emissions from cars – calling for a 25 percent reduction by 2020.
It is satisfying to us global warming fear mongers that industry is now being hit with prospects of both regulation and paying for the damage done by their greenhouse gas emissions. But the cost or protecting our coastal cities is so enormous that collecting the money from industries for dike systems is beyond reality, and they know it.
Yet time is running out. Personally, global warming took on new meaning for me when I made a trip to Alaska and for some hours watched giant glaciers falling into the water and saw huge land areas that have lost massive glaciers in recent years. If you ever want to see glaciers, you better take a trip soon. At the pace we are addressing global warming, a large part of the globe's glaciers will melt away in the not too distant future.
www.delusionaldemocracy.com
Joel S. Hirschhorn is the author of Delusional Democracy - Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government (www.delusionaldemocracy.com). His current political writings have been greatly influenced by working as a senior staffer for the U.S. Congress and for the National Governors Association. He advocates a Second American Revolution, beginning with an Article V Convention to propose constitutional amendments. He is Chair of the Independent Party of Maryland.
