Thursday, December 8, 2011

IF GLOBAL WARMING WERE AN ASTEROID

I've been wondering, if global warming were a large asteroid on a collision course with Earth, destined to destroy our civilization and much of life on the planet, would...

...the United States refuse to sign a treaty designed to avert the impending catastrophe?

...a World Conference on the Asteroid Collision fail to reach consensus on dealing with the problem and decide to put off beginning to work on a solution for eight or nine years?

...at least six serious Republican presidential candidates avow that they did not believe in the science predicting the asteroid's trajectory?

...the United States government declare that it would not participate in working to divert the asteroid because China wasn't doing it either?

...the Secretary-General of the United Nations say that economic problems and political discord meant the "ultimate goal" of a worldwide effort to avoid the asteroid disaster "may be beyond our reach, for now"?

Here's a "newsflash" to world leaders and governments: global warming/climate change IS an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. If we don't find a solution it's not going to magically change its path. Since governments seem determined to ignore and/or deny the existence of the imminent problem, perhaps we need an Occupy Earth movement, and start taking action on our own. Would love to hear ideas about what this would look like.