Climate Truth Blog

I wish to thank Mr. Ken Murray for highlighting global warming on his July 5 radio program on KQMS and for acknowledging the critical human role in both the problem and the solution. It was extremely refreshing and gratifying to hear one of our community leaders speak out so clearly in recognizing a factual reality that the rest of our leaders in the north state still deny or pretend isn’t happening. At a time when record-breaking heat, droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme weather events rock the planet Murray is to be applauded for his forthrightness and courage.

Thankfully, Murray is not the only one speaking out from the right. National Review, a highly conservative magazine recently ran a cover story entitled, “Taking the Heat, A Conservative Strategy on Global Warming” in which they said, “It is no longer possible, scientifically or politically to deny that human activities have very likely increased global temperatures…conservatives should accept this reality—and move on to the question of what we should do about it.”

The article stated, “The underlying physics require us to accept that rising concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are driving increases in global temperatures.” The article went on to state, “If you are skeptical of this, you are skeptical of the last 120 years of particle physics. All else equal, the more CO2 molecules we have in the atmosphere, the hotter it gets.”

Unfortunately, as Murray admitted, it may already be too late for us to stop the runaway train of climate change. According to the councilman, who has been studying the latest scientific reports, we may be four years too late or, at most, have ten years left to find and implement an effective solution. He also correctly recognizes that the so-called solutions presented by Schwarzenegger and the Democrats are worse than nothing because they merely pretend to solve the global crisis while precious time is being wasted.

So what should be done? I would suggest the following:

1) Each of us in our local community need to set aside our differences and join with others across the planet on the left and right to acknowledge the scientific facts and take the painful, necessary steps to reduce our personal and collective contribution to the problem.

2) In his book, “Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning,” George Monbiot correctly identifies rationing as our only hope. We know we have to reduce our carbon emissions and scientists generally agree on how much. Each of us needs to pressure our local, state and federal representatives to join with us in ensuring that meaningful legislation is drafted which will establish mandatory, enforceable “carbon allocation” limits.

3) The more creative among us will then help us adjust to life within a “carbon budget” as we transition to reliance on alternative sources for our energy and transportation needs.

Murray may be right. It may be too late. We may utterly fail to solve the most crushing catastrophe to ever face humanity in its brief appearance on Earth’s stage. But we must try. For the sake of our children and future generations and the millions of life-forms now dependent on our actions, we must try. Acknowledging reality is a great place for to start. Ken Murray has done us a favor. It is now up to each of us to follow his lead.

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