Leadership

We enjoyed the movie '11th Hour' last night. It is essentially 90 minutes of scientists talking about the current condition of planet Earth and what we must do to save our biosphere. It didn't do much bush bashing directly but it certainly talked a lot about the importance of leadership in addressing our problems. So you can pretty much figure out what everyone in the theater was thinking. The Oil/Gas and Coal guys are the bad guys, as they should be.

There were two young women sitting next to me who were given tickets. They were probably around 18-20 years old. One of them asked me if I knew what the movie was about. I told them and they seemed disappointed that it was not an action picture. They sat through the movie however and were glued to the screen. Leonard DiCaprio might have helped, although you see very little of him. I think the young women really were awakened. The purpose of the movie, according to DiCaprio, is to make people more aware and it sure worked with them.

It is sad it isn't working with some elected officials. It looks like the plan to burn New Mexico's Pinon/Juniper forests for a power plant in Torrance County is back on track. So, we are taking trees that scrub the atmosphere of Carbon while providing Oxygen, and burning them for electrical power. Does this sound right to you? New Mexico State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons approved a no-bid contract to provide these trees off state land. Why hasn't the legislature or the media taken this on? It is shameful and damaging to future generations. It is wrong, wrong, wrong!

It is just the kind of thing that '11th Hour' condemns. Using reasoning that says the economic value of a few jobs at a power plant are more important than a climate meltdown.