The Copenhagen Dither, and Waiting for the Big One

As the MSM, albeit reluctantly, shifts its focus from the fascinating Salahis and Tiger’s marriage to the more challenging and less exciting matters being discussed in Copenhagen this month, it will desperately seek to feed its thrill-machine with whatever it can find there. So far, the closest thing to fodder for that mill would be the words of James Hansen, the NASA scientist who has led much of the activism over climate change from the geek side of the issue.

Hansen is also fiercely critical of Barack Obama – and even Al Gore, who won a Nobel peace prize for his efforts to get the world to act on climate change – saying politicians have failed to meet what he regards as the moral challenge of our age.

In Hansen’s view, dealing with climate change allows no room for the compromises that rule the world of elected politics. “This is analagous to the issue of slavery faced by Abraham Lincoln or the issue of Nazism faced by Winston Churchill,” he said. “On those kind of issues you cannot compromise. You can’t say let’s reduce slavery, let’s find a compromise and reduce it 50% or reduce it 40%.”

He added: “We don’t have a leader who is able to grasp it and say what is really needed. Instead we are trying to continue business as usual.”

Well, he’s right: we’re not debating Afghanistan here, which involves the lives of many both here and over there, but no more; or health care reform, a purely domestic issue which other developed nations have long since solved — we’re talking about the fate of the human species, period. Note carefully that much of the rhetoric you hear about climate change is misdirected: this issue is not about saving the planet (it will go on without us), it’s about saving our own species’ living place upon it.

Another point that Hansen raises is one suggested by the story of big pharma, discussed here earlier this week: you can propose to fine and tax these corporate creeps all you like. They will use every lobbyist, lawyer, and influence-peddler they have at their command to stop the fines and taxes. But if you succeed in exacting such penalties upon them, they will pay them and not bat an eyelash in continuing with their depredations, whether it is against people or the planet.

The corporate track record with respect to both people and the environment should be very clearly acknowledged by every thinking person on this Earth by now — especially during the week of the 25th anniversary of Bhopal. So once again, the only debate around this issue concerns those who benefit vastly from corporate contributions. This is why it is even more tragic that politicians are responsible for dealing with this threat than it is that they are allowed to lead us into war — of all the players on this issue, theirs is the narrowest and most short-sighted vision possible, Obama included.

Thus, the vast likelihood is that some red-headline event will have to become the catalyst for change, as one Australian recently said:

At some point, however, reality may bite. Hamilton, who is running for Parliament in Australia, said more and more people he meets are having what he calls an “Oh shit!” moment. “It’s that moment when you really get it, when you understand not just intellectually but emotionally that climate change is really happening. I think we will see a rush of that over the next couple of years,” he said.

It may take one or more terrible shocks – national bankruptcies, a major environmental disaster in a vulnerable country like Bangladesh – for that to happen…