So there’s this thing called climate change happening, and the idea is that the way humans are living (and have been living for a hundred + years) is going to warm up the Earth in some place, acidify oceans, raise sea levels, and generally wreak havoc on the Earth’s weather patterns enough to change the actual climate most everywhere. We have a pretty solid consensus about this- there is not nearly the debate that some of the pundits would like you to think that there is. Even Reuters writes sentences like, “Even before he became president, Barack Obama said he placed a high priority on tackling global warming as part of an international push to cut the pollution many scientists blame for severe weather patterns and rising ocean levels.” They can’t assume it is happening or there would be outcry.

There are plenty of anecdotes that are evidence that this is happening, and there are plenty of places where you can personally go and watch it happening. I’ve watched the government argue for well over a year about what to do about this, and I’ve come to the conclusion that when they do get around to passing a bill, it won’t do much and it won’t have a whole lot of support from anyone. This is where our democracy fails us. We cannot afford to compromise on something that literally affects the whole world. This is not dealing with some cheaters on Wall Street or a corrupt politician. This is dealing with the true future of our Globe, that everyone shares and that everyone depends on- and that everyone is a part of.

And now the two people, John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, at the charge’s lead are scaling back their groundbreaking climate change legislation. Why? To help it get a chance to pass. The new focus is on cutting pollution from electric power utilities. Great. By 2013 there would be new controls on pollution, but even this does not ensure that there will be enough

With memories of Copenhagen fresh in everyone’s memory, the next conference in Mexico is looking at the same thing that largely derailed them- the U.S. has no bill, no commitment within to fight climate change. We are the second-biggest polluter in the world and we haven’t committed to cutting our waste. And still we blame China for the problem. They are the biggest and they shouldn’t be in the developing nation group for that very reason, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything- we don’t get a free pass.

I know that people are “worried” that without U.S. action there will be nothing substantive done in Mexico. I can tell you right now, the U.S. will not pass a meaningful climate change bill before the November elections. It would mean getting some Republicans to vote for it, and that is not going to happen in such a critical year. They can’t afford it politically.

This new bill again uses capping of emissions and some carbon offset language, which will never be palatable to the Right. But neither will climate change, which they also choose to ignore.

Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks