Our state Assembly had the chance to do something great this past Tuesday while addressing an issue of dire importance. They had the opportunity to consider Assembly Bill 157, the Wisconsin Safe Climate Act, which would require the state to sharply reduce the main cause of global warming, carbon dioxide pollution. However, members of our Legislature failed this test of history and courageously chose to block even its very discussion.
I call these men and women ?courageous? because they committed this obstruction despite the 84 percent of Wisconsinites who favor state action to reduce the causes of global warming. Clearly, like our president, these civil servants are not intimidated by something as inconsequential as the will of the people. Their electoral future did not even provoke them to discuss the matter. Or perhaps they are merely so busy that they just do not have time to deliberate about what role Wisconsin, with our long history of progressive leadership, can take in preventing the potential annihilation of life as we know it.
Countering global warming is one of the deepest moral and strategic challenges our species has ever faced. University of Wisconsin zoology Professor James Pawley described it as an ?overarching problem? which, if not handled properly, ?could lead to the premature demise of billions of people.?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that evidence of the planet?s warming is now considered ?unequivocal,? and that the effects on our climate system could be ?abrupt and irreversible.? Furthermore, a recent study from the International Institute for Strategic Studies has said that climate change ?could have global security implications on par with nuclear war unless urgent action is taken.?
Yet why should these state legislators be the ones who decide what sort of efforts our country should take to prevent this coming catastrophe? It is the same reason why California, one of 16 other states to pass similar legislation, has filed a lawsuit challenging ?the Bush administration?s conclusion that states have no business setting emission standards.?
The reason is this: In regard to global warming, our national government has surpassed both willful ignorance and criminal negligence, and has been moving toward a treasonous contempt for both our country?s and the world?s future. This contempt is illustrated by the three-month-old report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which concluded that the Bush administration has ?engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming.?
The report stipulates that our government has ?censored climate change scientists,? ?extensively edited climate change reports? and has ?muzzled environmental administration staffers.? Our state Assembly follows in this legacy, in failing to stand up to a morally bankrupt policy of obfuscation and denial in the face of the most cataclysmic threat our world has ever faced ? a threat that can be equated with global nuclear war.
Our country and our state Assembly are taking the chance that science isn?t real and that logic, reason and foresight need not be applied to issues important to powerful interest groups. This mentality was recently put on display by GM Vice President Bob Lutz when he declared that global warming is a ?total crock of shit.? What I never understood about the global warming denial movement is even if there was not unprecedented consensus on the issue, and let?s say only a 10 percent chance that our entire species will be wiped out, isn?t that still enough risk to justify capping emissions? Or at least enough risk for a state Legislature to take the time to discuss what they can do to help?
Wisconsin governmental officials and citizens alike need to rediscover our state?s progressive heritage and take the lead on this integral issue. Waiting for the presidential election should not be an option, as it is simply too big a risk to trust bought-and-paid-for politicians and media figures to keep their word. This risk is evidenced by the Democratic candidates? engagement in three coal industry sponsored debates on CNN ? all events free of even a single question about global warming. Furthermore, a study by the League of Conservation Voters has noted that top political talk show hosts dedicate only 0.1 percent of their questions to global warming. They must have been too busy discussing lapel pins or something.
Now don?t get me wrong, the Wisconsin Safe Climate Act is far from perfect, which has lead Mr. Pawley to regret it isn?t stronger. However, it is a step in the right direction, and considering how few steps our country or our state have taken in this regard, any movement on the issue should make us all proud. I would certainly have been less repulsed if our state would have at least taken the step to merely discuss this issue.
Wisconsin has long been a bastion of progressive action, and it is long past time for our government officials to stop counting campaign contributions and begin worrying about the well-being of their constituents and the future of the world. If they continue to fail this great test of history and this basic test of moral decency, then it is up to us to ensure that we render their callous and cowardly legacies irrelevant to our state?s future by removing them from power.
Harry Waisbren ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in communication arts.
