Leaders need a serious reality check

Ever read the newspaper and get the eerie feeling that you’ve entered the Twilight Zone?
I’ve been getting that feeling a lot recently. Here’s the source of my current frustration: Scientists’ warnings about the threats that global warming pose to nature, human health and the world economy have never been more acute, more specific or more worrisome.

I’ve been getting that feeling a lot recently. Here’s the source of my current frustration: Scientists’ warnings about the threats that global warming pose to nature, human health and the world economy have never been more acute, more specific or more worrisome.
Some of the latest stories include the following: The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that this year Arctic sea ice shrank to the smallest area ever recorded in the 30-year history of satellite monitoring. A study from the journal Geophysical Research Letters reports that Greenland is rising by some four centimeters a year due to melting ice – a four-fold increase in just four years. Another article in the same journal reports that new computer models indicate a 90 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will be required if we are to have any hope of preventing dangerous climate change.
Efforts to reduce those emissions aren’t going so well, either. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that, in the first six years of this new century, carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas) emissions rose more than twice as fast as they did during the 1990s. Not exactly good news. But, the authors report, the earth’s natural carbon “sinks” such as forests and oceans that store carbon and buffer us against climate change don’t appear to be working as efficiently as they did 50 years ago. In other words, Mother Nature’s ability to soak up our greenhouse pollution is weakening – and that threatens to speed up global warming even more.
All of these stories were reported in October. Then, towards the end of the month, Julie Gerberding, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works committee. The Committee was holding its first-ever session on the health impacts of climate change.
And what happened? The White House censored her report. According to an article in the journal Science, her 12-page report was cut in half. Scientists with the CDC said it was “gutted” and sections that talked about some of the health implications of global warming, including the effects of heat waves, increases in infectious diseases and worsening allergic diseases, were entirely removed.
This is where it starts feeling like the Twilight Zone. Like we’ve gone back in time. Here we have the government of the most powerful nation on Earth still living in denial – in spite of all the evidence. In spite of the empirical data, the computer models, the satellite readings. In spite of the fact that the country’s former Vice President and the international scientific body investigating the problem just won a Nobel Peace Prize for their work on climate change. In spite of all that, the White House still continues to censor its own scientists.
What’s happening in the U.S. wouldn’t be quite as disturbing if our own federal government was actually making headway on the issue. It isn’t. Although our prime minister says he takes global warming very seriously, his government has thus far done nothing that will result in significant greenhouse gas reductions.
Here’s a message for all leaders: Talk won’t solve global warming. Wishful thinking, or “aspirational” targets won’t stop global warming. Happy educational programs won’t solve global warming. Targets and timelines for substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a carbon-pricing mechanism, protecting our natural carbon sinks and a massive ramp-up of research and development in renewable energy and efficiency, all brought together at an international scale, can. Until that happens, we’re just living in the Twilight Zone.
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