Credibility of the U.S. in Climate Change up for Review

earthU.S. Battles for Credibility on Climate Change is the title of an article off the AP newswire this morning- well no kidding. I’ve been pressing that issue for weeks. The U.S. Congress is twiddling their thumbs, spitting venom at each other over whether the government should provide free health care to people who can’t afford it, and trying to figure out how to pass some regulations that will look tough on our financial institutions but probably not do anything of any real significance… and at the same time putting a whole lot of energy into town hall meetings where people repeat pundit-friendly observations on various legislative issue.

All the while the world is focusing on and gearing up for the Copenhagen summit and developing the next climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Did the U.S. work with the Kyoto Protocol? No, we never ratified it. 37 other developed/ industrialized countries are working with its guidelines and initiatives to do something about the problem. The U.S., though, is too concerned about how those regulations may affect our business interests. Even now the Republicans have little to say about climate change and what to do about it other than that cap and trade is like an energy tax that will be bad for business because it’s just charging businesses more money to do business-

Not to mention the pervasive belief in conservative circles that climate change is natural and that all of this industrialization isn’t causing it anyway. Some powerful denial, folks. Our 6,000 year old earth is apparently unaffected by humanity’s decision to dig up all of the carbon-rich stuff that’s underground and burn it. The basic Republican/ conservative message right now is that we haven’t done anything wrong and we shouldn’t be punished. The liberals, on the other hand, are basically saying hey, what we’re doing isn’t sustainable or good for ourselves- let’s try something else. Yes, it will be bad for existing businesses, but we can work it into businesses as they are created- we can make a NEW business model- one that works with the triple bottom line- one that takes into account the effect of what we are doing to do business on People, the Planet AND Profit- we can make businesses that make money and respect the people who create the products and the planet we make them from.

Ok, so you can tell which side I’m on- but all of this taken together in the context of the world brings me back to the headline: U.S. Battles for Credibility on Climate Change

I would say we are not even battling for it- we don’t have it. We didn’t sign the last global climate treaty, we don’t have our act together enough to even agree on a bill to make it through Congress for our own country- one of our two political parties doesn’t even really think that we have anything to change, and they certainly don’t want to do anything about it if it will hurt the bottom line. We (the U.S.) have no business telling anyone what to think or do when Copenhagen comes.

We need to go in there, apologize, and support a plan that moves the battle not for credibility but for action forward.