Harry Hope
2010-07-08 01:01:43 UTC
http://www.progressive.org/mpreuss070710.html
July 7, 2010
We owe future generations a livable environment
By Alejandro Reuss
We need to act on climate change because we owe future generations a
livable environment.
These days, politicians are constantly invoking the interests of our
grandchildren in arguments against deficit spending.
If they really care about future generations, though, they should
support legislation to rein in greenhouse gas emissions now.
At least two dozen senators have referred, in Senate session this
year, to government debt as an unconscionable burden on our
grandchildren.
More than two-thirds of these same senators, however, just voted for a
Senate bill that would have stripped the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) of the power to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, with
no alternative in place.
The opponents of deficit spending are almost completely wrong on the
economics.
The U.S. government can borrow at very low interest rates.
As economics Nobel laureate Paul Krugman estimates, the annual
interest payment on $1 trillion the government borrows today amounts
to less than one-tenth of 1 percent of GDP.
Though they exaggerate the burden of the government debt, the deficit
hawks are right that we have a sacred duty to future generations.
Our grandchildren have no way to make their voices heard, so we have
the power to put our own interests ahead of theirs, if we choose.
Our willingness to make some sacrifices for the sake of the
generations that follow us, then, is a test of our virtue.
Climate change is a grave threat to future generations.
Climate scientists predict harms that include rising sea levels and
flooded coastal areas, increased extreme weather events (like severe
hurricanes), and the disruption of existing ecosystems.
The consensus among climate scientists firmly establishes links
between our combustion of fossil fuels and rising atmospheric
concentrations of greenhouse gases, and between those rising
concentrations and climate change.
It would be unconscionably self-serving to ignore the science, go on
burning fossil fuels as we have up to now, and hope against hope that
everything will turn out fine.
One might compare climate change denial to gambling the future at a
roulette wheel when you dont know the likelihood of merely losing
your shirt versus losing the family house.
But its really much worse than that.
Those who wont face up to the need for serious action now are
gambling the future not only of our grandchildren in this country
but also other peoples grandchildren all over the world.
______________________________________________________
Harry
July 7, 2010
We owe future generations a livable environment
By Alejandro Reuss
We need to act on climate change because we owe future generations a
livable environment.
These days, politicians are constantly invoking the interests of our
grandchildren in arguments against deficit spending.
If they really care about future generations, though, they should
support legislation to rein in greenhouse gas emissions now.
At least two dozen senators have referred, in Senate session this
year, to government debt as an unconscionable burden on our
grandchildren.
More than two-thirds of these same senators, however, just voted for a
Senate bill that would have stripped the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) of the power to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, with
no alternative in place.
The opponents of deficit spending are almost completely wrong on the
economics.
The U.S. government can borrow at very low interest rates.
As economics Nobel laureate Paul Krugman estimates, the annual
interest payment on $1 trillion the government borrows today amounts
to less than one-tenth of 1 percent of GDP.
Though they exaggerate the burden of the government debt, the deficit
hawks are right that we have a sacred duty to future generations.
Our grandchildren have no way to make their voices heard, so we have
the power to put our own interests ahead of theirs, if we choose.
Our willingness to make some sacrifices for the sake of the
generations that follow us, then, is a test of our virtue.
Climate change is a grave threat to future generations.
Climate scientists predict harms that include rising sea levels and
flooded coastal areas, increased extreme weather events (like severe
hurricanes), and the disruption of existing ecosystems.
The consensus among climate scientists firmly establishes links
between our combustion of fossil fuels and rising atmospheric
concentrations of greenhouse gases, and between those rising
concentrations and climate change.
It would be unconscionably self-serving to ignore the science, go on
burning fossil fuels as we have up to now, and hope against hope that
everything will turn out fine.
One might compare climate change denial to gambling the future at a
roulette wheel when you dont know the likelihood of merely losing
your shirt versus losing the family house.
But its really much worse than that.
Those who wont face up to the need for serious action now are
gambling the future not only of our grandchildren in this country
but also other peoples grandchildren all over the world.
______________________________________________________
Harry