Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Head in the Sand

Yesterday I attended a luncheon on the corporate and business sector's responsibility in assuring climate change doesn't kill us all. This group is working towards revenwable energy to power their enterprises. The keynote was given by Senator Bingaman and then a panel made up of business economists and owners responded. One of the panel members however was a scientist from Los Alamos National Labs. He scared me silly. He says that essentially climate change events are cascading much faster than anyone thought possible and the results are frightening.

So, what is going besides the meeting that 230 people attended? Why a front group funded by the oil and gas industry, who runs the republican party in New Mexico, are planning protests of the passage of a climate bill by the US House of Representatives. They said the bill would cost money and jobs. They didn't say anything about the lives it will save in the future.

It is just hard for me to fathom how the oil and gas industry can be run by people whose heads are buried in the sand. Define sand as future profits I guess. How can they go home at night and face loved ones? Are they so ignorant that they think they know better than several hundred thousand scientists who pretty much accept climate change as happening?

I guess it all comes down to spin meisters these days. And radio talk show hosts and Fox news.

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