Obama takes one for Team Planet

Doing the right thing is not always easy, especially if you are the President of the United States of America. In a political system that is quite possibly more corrupt than North Korea, the Obama administration is surrounded by very highly-paid lobbyists who have tried very hard to get the Keystone XL Pipeline approved. Obama administration rejects Keystone XL pipeline (Washington Post, 18 January 2012) Possibly for the first time in his entire Presidency, Barrack Obama has done the right thing: North America needs to understand that Tar Sands are not the answer to its need for energy security, just as the rest of the world needs to understand that Arctic Oil and Shale Gas are not the answer to their’s either. There will be many who will be angry about this decision but, in getting angry, they expose the shallow and narrow-minded nature of their position: They treat fossil fuels like climbers treat mountains; and want to burn them merely because they are there. To do so requires an extra-ordinary degree of tunnel vision; but they have proven themselves equal to the task. Just like the tobacco company executives who went before them, and from whom they have learnt so diligently, they have known what they are doing will hasten the death of many people but, solely in the interest of increasing their own affluence, they have kept on going. For how much longer must we put up with the Fossil Fuel Lobby shamelessly denying climate change has been caused – and is now being accelerated – by the burning of fossil fuels? Bring on the class act law suit, our children and grandchildren need it now! Even the International Energy Agency now admits that we must stop burning fossil fuels; and we must do so quickly. Now is not the time for 20 or 30 year programmes, we must do it all in 5 or 10 years, or we can kiss goodbye to a reasonably-habitable planet: If we burn all fossil fuels simply because we can, the best estimate of people whose opinions we really should respect is that by 2100AD the Earth will have warmed up by an average of 4 to 6 Celsius (that’s 7 to 11 Fahrenheit)… It will be Game Over for millions of acres of farmland and, if you thought 2011 was a bad year for refugees and enforced migration, just wait until all our coastal plains and cities are flooded; then you will know what the scientists meant when they talked about “climate disruption”! Well Done President Obama, you have done the right thing: This is a victory for common sense; and it must be hoped that, far from finding some way to circumvent this decision, those who would wish to build this pipeline will take a good long hard look in the mirror (and then go and get a job working for Greenpeace). Now I am getting stupid – I had better stop.

Advertisement