New Report Shows US Not Prepared For Abrupt Climate Change

[matthewf]

[SheilaT]

1. I rather doubt any country is

prepared for abrupt climate change.

To a very large extent societies are pretty much based on the notion that things will continue into the indefinite future as they always have been. And ever since the Industrial Revolution (possibly before, I'm not knowledgeable enough about economic history) society is also based on the idea that growth will occur at a reasonably steady rate.

Those assumptions aren't the way things work, unfortunately.

[peoli]

2. How do we make Climate Change be at the top of the Democratic platform?

[swilton]

3. Jimmy Carter

Last edited Fri Dec 20, 2013, 09:36 PM - Edit history (1)

was the last US president who tried to be proactive in dealing with natural phenomenon such as global warming and climate change. He tried to get the US to address the problem of its energy consumption and over-reliance on fossil fuels...Putting solar panels on the White House and turning thermostats down in the W/H and public buildings were just two of the many initiatives where he tried to set and lead by example.

Then Ronald Reagan was elected - and since that time we have 'let the market take care of everything' - evidence be damned. Regan came into office with some PR sound-bite like - it's morning in America - a critique of Carter's rationalism.....he took the solar panels off the WH and they've now gone to the Carter museum in Georgia, slashing research programs for energy alternatives and conservation.

I find both parties are complicit in this short-sightedness...Clinton had the opportunity to reap the dividend from the end of the Cold War and to invest in a post-petroleum economy.....Nothing happened - like so many politicians a captive of special interests and the status quo

The crises brought on by climate change are mutually exclusive but directly linked to our energy policy and changing that policy is fundamental to recognizing that it is what causes catastrophic weather events.

I do not believe that other countries are on the same path.....It's part of America's individualist culture that resources are unlimited and we must have continued economic growth (i.e., capitalism) in order to protect our future...It was George Bush sr. who coined the term the American Way of Life is not negotiable at the 1992 first UN summit on climate change in Rio de Janeiro ....furthermore you have the religious fundamentalists who won't even recognize evolution - and are exploited for their denials of global warming.

Unlike the US, western countries such as the Netherlands have programs to promote alternatives to motor cars and also study the affects of rising sea levels.....The wind farms were developed in Denmark..The Philippines and some of the island nations that will be most affected by rising sea-levels are definitely taking action and are pleading with the 'first world' - the West to take this seriously....While the planet's society has not totally addressed this problem, most countries are farther along in accepting it as a reality than is the US.