It's best to fight a battle, such as global warming, on multiple fronts.
While many have been following the rise of global warming activism on the left, for a long time now I've been hoping and praying for a similar rise on the right. Why? Once both ends of the political spectrum begin to act, things will really happen. (Example: the 90-something-to-1 FDA vote in the senate today.) It's tough to get a risk-averse politician to spend political capital. Solution: get the value of that capital down to zero.
If we can get the GOP on board, our struggle is over.
Follow me below for a recap of this "Fight on the Right" --- and some absolutely mindblowing breaking news. Trust me: your jaw will smash your space bar.
(Oh, and a dire warning to all you pessimists out there: this is a ROSY, OPTIMISTIC DIARY!)
All good yarns set the scene, start with some background, before the punchline. Ours is no different.
Last February we saw Evangelical Christian leaders come together for a Global Warming Initiative:
Despite opposition from some of their colleagues, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have decided to back a major initiative to fight global warming, saying "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors."
Among signers of the statement, which will be released in Washington on Wednesday, are the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, leaders of aid groups and churches, like the Salvation Army, and pastors of megachurches, including Rick Warren, author of the best seller "The Purpose-Driven Life."
"For most of us, until recently this has not been treated as a pressing issue or major priority," the statement said. "Indeed, many of us have required considerable convincing before becoming persuaded that climate change is a real problem and that it ought to matter to us as Christians. But now we have seen and heard enough."
How about Catholics? Pope Benedict has been taking some mud around here for his latest outbursts on abortion, ex-communicating Catholic politicians. But, credit where credit is due. Just a couple of weeks ago we have:
Cardinal Says Pope Should Talk Climate Change with Bush
April 27, 2007 — By Philip Pullella, Reuters
VATICAN CITY -- A senior adviser to Pope Benedict said on Thursday he believes the Pontiff should raise the dangers of climate change and global warming with U.S. President George W. Bush when the two meet in June.
Cardinal Renato Martino told reporters on the sidelines of a Vatican-sponsored scientific conference on climate change that religious leaders around the world should remind members of their flocks that wilfully damaging the environment is sinful.
Bush is due to meet Benedict at the Vatican in June while the U.S. president is in Europe for a Group of Eight (G8) summit when Germany, the current G8 president, wants to forge an international agreement on combating climate change.
"It's not for me to say what the Pope and President Bush should discuss but certainly they will discuss current issues and therefore I imagine and I hope they will (discuss climate change)," Martino said.
"It certainly merits it," said Martino, who, as head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is the Pope's point man for social issues such as the environment.
OK, looks like religion is covered, at last. How about business magnates, another classic form of Right Wingnut? Billionaire Virgin Airways founder Richard Branson to fight against global warming:
Branson Pledges Billions to Fight Global Warming
Sir Richard Branson, the British magnate and adventurer, said today that all of his profits from his five airlines and train company, projected to be $3 billion through the next 10 years, would be invested in developing energy sources that do not contribute to global warming.
Richard Branson announced the pledge on the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.
He announced the plan on the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative, a three-day meeting in Manhattan that amounts to a competitive festival of philanthropy run by former President Bill Clinton.
The money, he said, would be invested in a host of enterprises, including existing businesses within his Virgin Group of 200 companies, that are seeking ways to save energy or produce fuels, including aviation fuel, not derived from coal and oil.
When burned, coal, oil and other fossil fuels add to the atmosphere’s natural trace of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping greenhouse gas linked by scientists to rising temperatures.
"Our generation has inherited an incredibly beautiful world from our parents and they from their parents," Mr. Branson said. "It is in our hands whether our children and their children inherit the same world. We must not be the generation responsible for irreversibly damaging the environment."
Mr. Branson said the idea had grown out of a visit to his London home a few months ago by former Vice President Al Gore, who is on a prolonged worldwide speaking tour to promote "An Inconvenient Truth," his documentary and book about global warming.
"You are in a position maybe to make a difference," Mr. Branson said Mr. Gore had told him. "If you can make a giant step forward other people will follow."
(Or, for cynics/humorists among you, The Onion's version: [...] Branson also reportedly plans to invest billions more on a time machine that would enable him to prevent the creation of Virgin Airways, reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by some four percent worldwide.) :)
Focusing on Al Gore's quote above, I can now give you the punchline. Gore says "If you can make a giant step forward other people will follow." Oh yeah? Like what other people? How about the Fox News Corp Billionaire Rupert Murdoch!
Fox News Corp. Announces New Green Initiative
Wednesday, 09 May 2007, 11:06 AM MDT
NEW YORK -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch Wednesday announced News Corporation's strategy to address its use of energy and impact on the climate.
The company’s goals are to reduce its operations’ carbon emissions significantly and to engage its 47,000 employees and its millions of readers, viewers and web users around the world on this issue.
Murdoch made his remarks in New York Wednesday in an address to employees.
"If we are to connect with our audiences on this issue, we must first get our own house in order," Murdoch said. "We have just begun this effort, and we have a long way to go. Our global reach gives us an unprecedented opportunity to inspire action from all corners of the world."
I hear cries of BULLSHIT! from the Cynic's Gallery. "It's a scam!" Fine, be cynical. But I see this as huge cause for optimism. Murdoch's motiviation may not be altruistic --- of course not. But the mere fact he's done this tells me that he's figured out the writing is on the wall. He'd better get ahead of the curve, quick --- if only for purely financial reasons.
All in all, don't you think this is some kind of tipping point? In an ideal world, Al Gore (God Bless Him) becomes redundant.
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Postscript. IIRC, Murdoch is Australian. With the catastrophic drought and animal deaths in Australia, our fellow non-signee of Kyoto... are some people down under beginning to connect some dots?
Australia to Help Drought-Stricken Farms, Combat Climate Change
By Gemma Daley
May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Australia, which relies on agriculture for 20 percent of its exports, will provide grants to farmers stricken by the worst drought in 100 years and will spend A$4.3 billion tackling climate change and water use.
The government will spend A$893 million in drought assistance, including counseling and new training to farmers in the year ending June 30 2008, according to budget papers released in Canberra today.
A drought has cut as much as 1 percentage point from economic growth, Prime Minister John Howard said. Australia's weather forecaster predicts only a 50 percent chance of average rainfall in the next three months