I find the climate change debate incredibly frightening.
This is not because we lack the capacity to combat climate change or because we
do not have the science to prove it is really happening. Rather, I am
frightened because of the willful ignorance of our government and media elite
who continue to presume there is controversy over these issues when there is
none.

Al Gore has utilized something all too rare in this country
?– true leadership — to ensure we do not stand idly by as our world is being
destroyed. His documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” not only won him
an Oscar, but it opened the eyes of people across the globe to see that many of
our country’s leaders continue to lie about one of the most vital issues in the
history of mankind.

This is why I am very proud I have been able to volunteer
for next week’s presentation of Wisconsin’s Inconvenient Truth, a presentation
on global climate change. I believe this will be a harrowing, yet hopeful, discussion
over what Wisconsin’s environmental future will hold if we do not take
immediate action to prevent global warming. Ryan Schryver, a clean energy
advocate for Clean Wisconsin, who was trained by former Vice President Al Gore
and several of the nation’s leading scientists, put the presentation together.

When I interviewed Mr. Schryver, I was startled to learn the
degree to which global warming is already affecting us in this state.
Wisconsin’s weather patterns have already changed egregiously, as evidenced by
the fact that spring arrives three weeks earlier than it has historically. Even
more disconcerting was the description he gave about the increasing patterns of
extreme weather we experienced this winter.

“It’s somewhat of a paradox, in that we can expect to
see more prolonged and frequent droughts, but at the same time when we get
storms we can expect them to be more intense,” he said. “And so this
winter, the weather patterns were very much in line with what we expect to see
as a result from global warming, where we have nice weather in between major
snowstorms.”

I am very worried over the prospect of Wisconsin’s weather
patterns changing so drastically, as some have already blamed global warming
for the quadrupling of natural disasters in the past two decades. Often people
speak of living in a post-Sept. 11 world, but I view myself as living in a
post-Hurricane Katrina world, in which we can no longer trust that our
government institutions will do everything they can to help the people. Neither
can we trust that our media institutions will demand accountability for such
malignant negligence.

My fear might seem a bit exaggerated, but as an example of
the reality of this threat, recall what happened this August. Gov. Jim Doyle
was forced to declare a statewide emergency because of widespread drought in
our state, yet our weather patterns throughout the state had already become so
unstable that less than one week later a federal disaster area was declared in
almost 10 Wisconsin counties because there had been almost 19 inches of rain
that caused massive flooding.

Considering the city of Madison’s pathetic response to the
increased snowfall we were confronted with this past winter, I am very
concerned over the fruits such extreme and unpredictable weather patterns will
bear if the problems from climate change not only persist, but will continue to
increase. Despite all of this, I remain hopeful for the future, if only for the
fact that environmentalists like Mr. Schryver remain extremely optimistic about
our capacity to tackle this immense challenge.

“I think that there is a general message of hope out
there,” he said. “I wouldn’t get up and do the job that I do as a
professional environmentalist every morning if I didn’t think we could solve
this problem. And we are not talking about people going back and living in
caves or anything like that. We are talking about a better world. We’re talking
about a world where we have jobs that are based on clean energy, we’re talking
about a world with cleaner air in general, and we’re talking about a world
where we don’t have to worry about these extreme weather patterns.”

I am excited to participate in Mr. Schryver’s discussion,
Wisconsin’s Inconvenient Truth, next Wednesday to learn how other students and
I can do more to contribute to a sustainable environmental future in Wisconsin.
It is scheduled for 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the basement of Gordon Commons, room A1.
This message of hope and call to action could not be addressing a more integral
issue, and it could not come at a more integral time for the state of
Wisconsin.

?

Harry Waisbren ([email protected]) is a senior
majoring in communication arts.