I am not going to try to pretend to fully understand the financial meltdown that is hitting Wall Street and the rest of the nation. I'll leave that to the pundits. But I do know that this nation seems trapped in the vice grip of short term thinking. And it is short term thinking, with an emphasis on profit or loss today(!) that appears to be at the heart of this recent calamity, plus a lot of other financial implosions. Unfortunately, it is this very same short thinking mentality that prevents us from solving our climate challenge.
Climate change is the deadliest of problems for Americans because it hits at our biggest weakness - inability to confront a challenge until it is right upon us. The build up of carbon in our atmosphere occurs slowly over time, but once it hits a certain tipping point, we are doomed to catastrophic consequences in our ecosystem and hence in our entire way of life. We can't see the carbon coming out of the tailpipes of our cars and power plants. It's hard to measure in a way that people can comprehend. Unlike the movie, "The Day After Tomorrow," there is not likely to be a single massive event that everyone can point to as evidence that the climate has passed the tipping point. So, how do we solve a problem that is long-term and not visible, or easily understood by the average person?
Long term thinking. We have to make investments in clean energy, in energy efficiency, and yes, in adaptation, today with the thought that these investments may not pay off for several years. We need to break the chains of short term thinking. Maybe the Wall Street meltdown is enough of a wake up call. Maybe our leadership will finally understand that we need policies in place that go beyond the next election cycle. We need fundamental change that will last a generation. The beauty of investments in a clean energy infrastructure are that they provide jobs today. They put this country back to work. In the short term, that will provide a needed lift. In the long term, the clean energy economy will solve climate change.
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Good thinking, as usual, Gary. And don't forget to tell your car dealer when you are ready to buy a new car, "No plug, No deal". I will only buy a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle or all-electric vehicle. This is real worth and real work building them. It reduces our environmental impact while saving our economy. Electrcity costs 75 cents per gallon equivalent and avoids the importation of oil. What could be better? Electricity for my car only from wind, Clean Currents wind !
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