Obama is planning to present the American people with his long-awaited plans on how to address Climate Change on Tuesday. For environmentalists like myself, this announcement is coming five years late! However, the silver lining is that Obama has had ample time and a bird's eye view to see just how bad things are with the climate, including paying in excess of $100 Billion for damage in New York and New Jersey from Hurricane Sandy alone! (Is that more or less than the damage done on 9/11, which resulted in our invasions of two foreign countries?)
But let's add to that the costs of Hurricane Katrina, which took out most of New Orleans, record-breaking floods, droughts, monster tornadoes, wildfires, crop losses and declines in fish populations along with degradation of the ocean from acidification, etc., These are all increasing climate skirmishes, which add untold billions to the costs we are increasingly incurring from changes to our climate. It is time for Obama to declare the war that already is being fought!
Our carbon emissions are already causing the climate to inflict huge losses. These climate events will continue to unfold in increasingly devastating and costly degrees as the climate worsens, not just in our own country but all around the globe. It won't be that long before climate changes cause populations on many continents to need to migrate to find food, shelter and clean water, especially as low-lying countries and population centers near waterways (which include a majority of major cities) become increasingly inhospitable with sea level rises. How much will it cost the US taxpayer in aide and military interventions to handle ensuing migrations and conflicts by millions for basic necessities?
Obama can make a pretty good case for what the costs of not battling climate change will be for the U.S. in the future. However, if we listen to scientists and spend wisely, we can upgrade our infrastructure, build smart grids, reduce our food, water and energy vulnerabilities, reduce air pollution and international exposure and move our country and the world with us, in the right direction. These positive impacts along with the likelihood of reducing future negative impacts, make a strong case for President Obama to formally declare War on Carbon (emissions). He could easily re-frame the magnitude of the problem to the American people and use the power of the Executive Office to coordinate U.S. might to engage our military forces, our industry and academia, and challenge citizens to commit our energies and resources to truly solving the climate problem. Collectively. Quickly. Possibly fast enough to avoid the worst climate impacts, before the tipping point in earth system collapse makes climate catastrophe inevitable.
Obama is the kind of leader who can make the case to send our nation into war against this common enemy. This solution presents the country with a mechanism to do what we all want him to do, which is overcome the political forces that prevent us from taking big and increasingly critical action on multiple fronts as a nation and heeding the warnings coming from the vast majority of global scientists about the coming horrific planetary disaster. We need a comprehensive solution that unites our nation around an intelligent, science-informed plan to move into a clean energy future.
Please sign this WhiteHouse.gov petition asking Obama to Declare War on Carbon and join me in urging Obama to use his executive power to launch the U.S. into "World War C." Let's take the lead in coordinating an all-hands on deck response to Climate Change, and start the process of us converting our democratic way of life from being a self-defeating carbon-intensive dependency to being a clean energy and affirmative realization of our obligations to our children!