Plan, What Plan?

By: Anthony J. Gerst

The last democratic presidential debate was coming in very sketchy on my computer. So I figured I would catch highlights on the news in the morning. Silly me, Halloween is scarier than Presidential politics, not. I doubt any of the candidates outlined a policy addressing Climate Change last night. I am talking about a program, one greater than the Man on the Moon Project, not rhetoric saying we are committed to X amount of CO2 reduction by Y.

Many of the readers at Planetsave probably concur that Climate Change is a major issue, if not the number one issue that the next president should address. Many of the candidates talk a great game about Climate Change, but do any of them really go the distance? Have you dear reader, given any real thought to how this issue should be addressed? Think about it for a moment and come back. Seriously, I want you to stop reading, and come back to this later in your day when you have formatted some thoughts about what needs to be done before we continue.

Alright, before any real action can be accomplished to address this global issue we need a plan. The EPA needs to have an equal billing with Homeland Security if we are to seriously address this issue. The head of this cabinet post needs access to the President. This individual of course, also needs a plan of action and a group of advisors to help formate one.

I would seek an individual nominated from the Sierra Club’s very own Carl Pope for starters. I think this distinguished group should have James Hansen or a candidate of his selection being represented as well. Al Gore I am sure could lend a name or two to this list. Dr. Glen Barry from the Ecological Internet would be a great voice to request, representing among other issues Old Growth Forestry. The Pew Center, Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, The Hadley Center and various other organizations from around the globe should be represented within this team.

“Why foreign nationals?” I can hear the murmuring already. This is a team to formulate a global response to Climate Change. We will ignore the fact that two of the fastest moving categories on the world clock, are barrels of oil pumped and hectares of forest cut, for now. This after all is a wish list of what should be done, a brief outline at that.

OK, we have a plan; the next step would be to present this. It will take a major expansion of the diplomatic core to accomplish this correctly, as this would need to be expressed to all governments on the planet, (China would be onboard rather quickly I think). Most of the nations would like to help, although I can think of some who may object. But think about it, if the US and China would work on this it could make a difference. Hypothetically, if U.S. and China were addressing this issue jointly, Australia would follow suit.

Why would China get on board? Bottom line: the only thing the Chinese Government really fears, or fears the most is the Chinese people. Really, the worst climate changing effects being felt upon the planet are in China. They seem to be one of the incubators of pandemic diseases and some of their pollution riddled cities practically never see the sun. The Gobi Desert is gobbling up land. I think China would be all over this project. While it will not make a difference, I propose that International groups like a Chinese and U.S. led operation begin storage of the freshwater runoff from Greenland. This can be accomplished.

There are of course many other avenues that need to be hammered out; we are talking about something that will never happen, although At the end of the day, those numbers on that clock tell the story, compromise or no progress.

A project like this should have begun twenty years ago; we can only mitigate what lies before us.

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