Us and Them - The Melting Game

Scientists, lawyers, activists and policymakers hear the call. The US President, a majority of the US House of Representatives, many senators and governors across the country claim to trust in the massive, irrefutable evidence. Numerous city mayors and other local leaders have been working hard for several years on the issue and believe in addressing it passionately. Other presidents and prime ministers of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe want to join together and act in response to the devastating effects climate change will very likely wreak on us all. And a global poll reports that the majority of countries in the world wants political leaders to put more emphasis on climate change; in fact "move it to the top of the agenda," they say.

But others have always been melting in their thinking...

Two key players here at home seem out of touch: most US Republican Senators and Congressmen and 56% of the US public. Without raising support in these two groups, climate change mitigation efforts will not be running at their full capacity. The lack of effort on our own soil and the wide misunderstanding of the issue has already taken away from our time --perhaps all the time we have. If we are to have a chance, though, we must act quickly and as a people conscious of what our global leaders have passed down to us.

The only climate change bill that has stood a chance of passing in Congress was supported by a mere eight Republican representatives. Republicans and their dirty pundits and thinktanks have continuously supported false claims about climate realities, scientific consensus on anthropogenic causes, and mitigation options. The funding of conservative thinktanks and other climate deniers has often come from the fossil fuel industry.

And a recent poll suggests that over 50% of the US public may not be fully aware of the implications of what they are thinking or just plain don't care. If the former is true, then the other half of Americans in the know must talk to their neighbors and coordinate an Obama-like and Obama-supported campaign to fight this thing with all we have.

If the latter is true, then I hope those in the way, melt first.