Whether you like him or not, it’s hard to argue with the fact President Barack Obama’s first term as president was actually fairly successful. He signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, nominated two Supreme Court Justices to the bench, repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, passed a massive economic stimulus package and, of course, was the first president in decades to accomplish real health care reform—just to name a few. However, as he himself admits, there’s one significant item on his agenda for which he’s failed to gain traction: global warming.
Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe, but with such obstinate refusal from Republicans in the House, who are more focused on shutting down the government and repealing Obamacare, you can see why it’s been difficult to move the debate in a meaningful direction. Nonetheless, several Senate Democrats Monday decided to go rogue and tried to jump-start this debate. As is the Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tradition to get a lot of attention, these senators stayed #Up4Climate all night, opining on the floor of the Senate as to why the United States needs to take action on the issue and hoping the rest of the nation would hear them. And we, the American public, should indeed listen to what these political leaders have to say about global warming, for it’s perhaps the most staggering, relentless and far-reaching problem of our generation. While there are many—far too many— global warming deniers (ahem, Republicans) calling this scientific fact merely a conspiracy or some sort of hoax, the truth is climate change as a result of human activity is 100 percent undeniable. Major nonpartisan scientific agencies, like NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, agree it’s a fact and it poses a threat to our existence. But we don’t see it happening only here in the United States.
While the United States continues to deny the fact of climate change and stalls on taking action, 97 percent of scientists around the world studying the topic have come to the same conclusion as NASA and NOAA. Of course, these experts didn’t arbitrarily decide on this to throw the world into mass hysteria. Being scientists, they, you know, used science, experimentation and observation to learn carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, trapping the sun’s heat on the earth, and that humans, in our energy consumption, are pumping tons of it into the air everyday.
Right now, we’re around 400 carbon dioxide parts-per-million in our atmosphere, and these scientists have reasoned the earth reaches its safety limit 350-ppm. At that point, natural cycles, they fear, will begin to spin out of control. As a result, we’ll witness changes like rising sea levels, more frequent, hostile weather, melting glaciers, acidic oceans in which life can’t live and the one we can all agree is the most unbearable—more mosquitoes.
Now, you might say we’ve passed the safety threshold and we’re totally screwed, but that’s not true. If we take bold action now, we can still mute the effects of climate change, and we might even be able to reverse the levels in our atmosphere. However, doing so certainly won’t be easy. To make a difference, we’re going to have to significantly change the way we use energy. We need to move away from fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas. We need to invest and transition to renewable sources like solar, wind and geothermal. Of course, we rely on these energies to heat our homes and run our cars, not to mention these industries make up a sizeable chunk of our economy.
Ultimately, it’s going to take an act of government to overcome these obstacles, and indeed, some of our leaders know we can’t ignore climate change forever. President Obama understands, and he’s taking all the action he can without Congress’ approval. Now, somewhat silly Cruzian tactics aside, Senate Democrats have decided we need to bring attention back to the issue. And while we can’t accomplish everything we need without Republican support, we can call on our Wisconsin GOP representatives, like Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Ron Johnson, to get on board. And we can stand with our Democratic leaders to say enough is enough: It’s time for change.
Do you agree with Sean about climate change and that we must take it more seriously? Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
