Sen. Hagel Changes Position On Environment
Posted by Ross
NPR's The World has become my favorite news program. Yesterday I was listening to a story in which GOP Senator Chuck Hagel has come out and acknowledged global warming is indeed a grave threat. This acknowledgment is particularly significant considering that in 1997 Hagel didn't believe there was conclusive scientific evidence to support global warming.
In the interview, which you can listen to at http://www.theworld.org/, Hagel talks about a plan he's working on that would both reduce green house gasses and be profitable in the free market. Hey, he's a Republican through and through.
Left of center though I am, I don't claim to know all, or any, of the answers. Yes, it bothers me that the US refuses to align itself with Kyoto. But it bothers me even more that the Bush administration refuses to even acknowledge global warming as a threat.
It reminds me of AIDS in the 80s. For too long, Reagan just ignored it, because it was an embarassing subject, and because too many still believed it was God punishing the gays. But finally, Reagan was forced to start dealing with it. And now we see, in countries like South Africa, something like 2/3 of AIDS-related deaths going unreported because of much the same social discomfort we were dealing with twenty years ago in the States.
My point is, I don't care how we deal with global warming. And, moreover, I don't know how to deal with global warming, other than personally being good to the environment, you know, only driving the Humvee on weekends and holidays.
Hearing a Republican like Hagel saying it's time to start doing something about it, though, gives me hope that the agonizingly slow wheels of bureaucracy are finally turning to deal with this pressing matter, just like they finally did with AIDS in the 80s.
Posted by Ross
NPR's The World has become my favorite news program. Yesterday I was listening to a story in which GOP Senator Chuck Hagel has come out and acknowledged global warming is indeed a grave threat. This acknowledgment is particularly significant considering that in 1997 Hagel didn't believe there was conclusive scientific evidence to support global warming.
In the interview, which you can listen to at http://www.theworld.org/, Hagel talks about a plan he's working on that would both reduce green house gasses and be profitable in the free market. Hey, he's a Republican through and through.
Left of center though I am, I don't claim to know all, or any, of the answers. Yes, it bothers me that the US refuses to align itself with Kyoto. But it bothers me even more that the Bush administration refuses to even acknowledge global warming as a threat.
It reminds me of AIDS in the 80s. For too long, Reagan just ignored it, because it was an embarassing subject, and because too many still believed it was God punishing the gays. But finally, Reagan was forced to start dealing with it. And now we see, in countries like South Africa, something like 2/3 of AIDS-related deaths going unreported because of much the same social discomfort we were dealing with twenty years ago in the States.
My point is, I don't care how we deal with global warming. And, moreover, I don't know how to deal with global warming, other than personally being good to the environment, you know, only driving the Humvee on weekends and holidays.
Hearing a Republican like Hagel saying it's time to start doing something about it, though, gives me hope that the agonizingly slow wheels of bureaucracy are finally turning to deal with this pressing matter, just like they finally did with AIDS in the 80s.
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