We human beings face the greatest challenge of our time. Our climate is changing. We only have one earth too live on and share. Pictures taken from outer space really give you an idea of what a beautiful planet we inhabit. Unless you have your head buried under the sand, the weather is changing . Earth is becoming warmer and new records for extreme weather occurrences are happening all of the time.

NASA, put together a chart during the President George Bush years, which graphically shows the dramatic changes that are taking place. On the chart it shows a 1000 year temperature band where the average earthly temperature did not go above or below the band during the entire 1000 year period. Now since the 1980’s the average temperature poked it’s head out of the band and the temperature has gone higher, greatly, since then. The Carbon dioxide level has gone up appreciably as well.

With the challenge of climate change comes opportunity. It does not matter whether man has contributed to the change in climate or how much of a contribution man has made, the facts are quite clear, our climate is warming up and we need to face the realization that we need to address the problems that global warming will bring with it.

The opportunity that comes with our challenge is that if we choose to take up the challenge, the United States can lead the world in the greening of the planet. Our leading the effort can lead to jobs, many jobs, with good incomes from the growth of the alternative energy field.

What we need is the political will to do so. On one side of the political equation we have what I like to call the flat earthers, those who deny that climate change is occurring. They deny the science and they prefer to listen to those who are on the payroll of energy companies, whose views on the matter of climate change are colored by their own economic self interest. Besides if you actually believed that our climate was changing that might mean that your life would have to change. You might have to turn in that gas guzzling SUV or power car for a more energy efficient car.

And then you have the no growthers, who acknowledge that climate change is occurring but insist that no form of energy is good enough. The no growth crowd are on the left wing of the political spectrum. They are against nuclear power plants, and fossil fuels. If solar power fields would somehow bother the local flora and fauna or disturb a small critter, they’re against the development of solar in that area. Wind farms well, forget those, they just might get in the way of the view or make too much noise. Well, you get the idea! I sometimes call them the cave dwellers because the only form of energy usage that they might not have problems with are candles.

Denial is a river in Egypt and we have to use some form of energy to fill in the time gap between the necessity to still use fossil fuels and the time when we can increase wind and solar, and other alternative forms of energy sufficiently enough, so that we can replace the power necessary to maintain our standard of living. Forcing people out of work is not a workable alternative.

The problems created by some rules and regulations as well as new laws, is that our legislators have failed to think things through regarding the unintended consequences of new rules and regulations. 

My father was a meteorologist, and no he did not study meteors, he was a weatherman. As the son of a weatherman, someone who could actually read a weather map, I’ve learned from osmosis, how different things are now. Hurricanes are more severe, and the generational tornado is now fairly commonplace.

There is a joke from a W.C.Fields movie that fits our time. W.C. and Baby Leroy were going down the river in a bathtub. All of a sudden, Baby Leroy, pulled the plug from the bathtub. W.C. and Baby Leroy were sinking into the river when W.C. Fields responded by saying “Oh My God, the river is rising.”

Well, don’t look now but the oceans are rising, glaciers are disappearing and it might be time to buy ocean front property in Greenland. It might be time to sell your ocean front property in Manhatten or Miami Beach before it is too late.

John F. Kennedy once challenged us all to reach the Moon by the end of the decade, and we did it. This is another time when we have to face a new challenge, the survival of our planet.

If you are religious, you acknowledge our duty to be a good steward of the earth.

Do not listen to the negative nebobs of negativity who think that somehow being for the environment is somehow radical. Heck, I remember those who claimed the environment did not need cleaning up.

For a person who lived in Los Angeles at the time, their claims were just darn right silly. Our air was so foul that if you played golf by the time you were on the back nine, you’re lungs were hurting.

I remember a time when the Hudson River was undrinkable. The point is the far right has been on the wrong side of history, forever. We need clean air and clean water and doggone it we don’t need a planet where we can breathe on it. This can be a planet uninhabitable if our level of carbon dioxide got too high.

We had a film in the 1960’s entitled a clear and present danger. Smog can kill and so can climate change.

It would be nice if we had a plan, and the politicians with the political will to do the right thing. The people are way a head of them in buying solar for our homes but we have a long, long ways to go before we can literally breathe easier.There are plenty of ideas out there. It is time to enact some of those plans before it is too late. Let us do so for our children and for our grandchildren.