The Need to State the Obvious...

From the Miami Herald via ClimateArk, an op-ed by Environmental Defense's Peter C. Goldmark on growing US recognition of the dangers and opportunities associated with climate change. Goldmark notes that these dangers and opportunities seem obvious to most of the country; it's not until one gets inside the Washington beltway that conflict arises. I'm not sure what it's going to take to get our leaders to recognize:

Global competitiveness also figures into the global warming challenge. Americans do best when we compete aggressively in the world economy and draw on our deep traditions of innovation and disciplined management. We have suffered when we turned a blind eye to problems or tried to hide behind walls of protectionism or denial. Most of the developed world recognizes that we have entered the era of carbon limits; many American business leaders understand this as well.

There are jobs, growth and profits to be had by mastering, rather than hiding from, the new greenhouse-friendly technologies and America should have its share of them. It makes no sense in terms of either economic competitiveness or climate stability for the U.S. to be trying to derail the first planetary effort to prevent run-away global warming.

Any suggestions on how we can wake up our "leaders?"

Technorati tags: politics, climate change, economics