By Bob Mount, Alabama REP
member, published September 15, 2009, in
the Opelika-Auburn (AL)
News
"After
running a fever for a while and noticing abnormal aches and pains, you
see a specialist. The doctor examines you, runs tests, and says you
have a serious disease.
"Without immediate treatment, it will worsen over time, and be hard, if
not impossible, to cure.
"Since the treatment is unpleasant and will be costly, you decide to
get a second opinion. Same warning, same prescription.
"You ask for the third, fourth, and fifth opinion. Same answer.
"After visiting (these specialists), you visit (one) who tells you what
you want to hear—that all the other specialists are wrong, your health
is fine and you can forget the whole thing."
The above was excerpted and slightly modified from opening paragraphs
of a commentary on the subject of global warming and climate change.
The writer follows by quoting a joint statement released in June by the
National Academies of the United States and 12 other large nations.
"Climate change is happening even faster than previously estimated;
global (carbon dioxide) emissions since 2000 have been higher than even
the highest predictions, Arctic Sea ice has been melting at rates much
faster than predicted, and the rise in the sea level has become more
rapid… The need for action to address climate change is now
indisputable."
The writer also states that carbon dioxide emissions are causing the
world’s oceans to become more acidic, "which could lead to irreversible
damage to fisheries that supply protein-rich food to millions of
people." This is a warning of the science academies of the U.S. and
more than five-dozen other countries. As a reference, he cites
http://dels.nas.edu/climatechange/.
I suspect that Rush Limbaugh ditto-heads and other so-called
"conservatives" assume the above commentary was written by Al Gore or
some other liberal Democrat. The author was a Republican, Jim DiPeso,
Vice President for Policy and Communications, Republicans for
Environmental Protection, an organization whose members I consider to
be conservatives.
DiPeso quotes Doug Holtz-Eakin, domestic adviser to McCain last year,
who wrote on newmajority.com, "…conservatives favor freedom of
opportunity for the generations to follow. It would not be conservative
to play fast and loose with the environmental inheritance today and
leave it for future generations to pick up the pieces."
See the full text of Jim DiPeso's commentary
in the Summer 2009 edition
of The Green Elephant.
