Oregonian Op-Ed - There Will Be No Bailout For The Next Crisis

[hatrack]

EDIT

The thorough shakeup of today's economic climate foreshadows an even more disastrous global crisis heading our way. The same belief in unlimited, unchecked growth (some would say outright greed) that fattened our economy on a diet of junk bonds and hollow lending is also strip-mining our planet's environment of the currency that nature safely invested for us over millions of years, and upon which all life -- including our own -- depends.

The concept of peak oil is not just some naysayers' delusion. According to the U.S. Energy Department's own findings, commonly called the Hirsch report and issued in 2005, it's an unavoidable reality, one that is hurtling toward us faster than we know what to do about. But like the blind eye that was turned on the proliferation of high-risk, foolhardy mortgages in the midst of a slowing economy, we've bolstered our bravado in the face of such warnings while enthusing about drilling offshore and in the arctic.

While we've been busy digging our fossil-fuel foundations out from under us with the same kind of naive bluster and faith in infinite growth that gutted the economy, we've also been busy ruining things at the top as our upper atmosphere becomes choked with carbon dioxide, leaving us in an environmental demise of our own doing.

When it comes to the economy, a few sleights of hand and a heavy toll on taxpayers, all partisan bickering aside, can be called upon to help us avert disaster and restore faith in the unlimited expansion model. But when it comes to nature's bank, cashing out is forever. No amount of midnight meetings, government-ordered buyouts or credit freezes can save a habitat laid fallow by years of unregulated dumping of chemical waste, nor can they lower our thermostats to an inhabitable temperature in the face of global warming.

EDIT

http://www.oregonlive.com/commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1224199%20517206370.xml&coll=7

[Nihil]

1. K/R ... someone gets it ...

> No amount of midnight meetings, government-ordered buyouts or credit freezes
> can save a habitat laid fallow by years of unregulated dumping of chemical waste,
> nor can they lower our thermostats to an inhabitable temperature in the face
> of global warming.

:-(

[YankeyMCC]

2. k & r

[n2doc]

3. I just hope that Obama starts the planning process for dealing with it

Agree nothing is going to happen on combating climate change while we are in economic crisis (except the natural decline in emissions due to lack of activity). That ain't gonna change what has been set in motion already, though. Gore would be a natural leader for this type of planning group.