Global Warming: “Profound implications that you can see coming our way”

So whether you subscribe to the slow and gradual model or the abrupt change model, there are profound implications that you can see coming our way. And I look at three of them. First of all, there’s displacement. If water levels rise in the gradual model over the next hundred years by less than a meter, a hundred million people living in low lying areas around the world are going to have to move. They’re going to be affected.

And if you consider that the rise in ocean temperatures with global warming affects the severity of storms, then you get some appreciation that it’s much more severe than simply gradually each year, the water goes up a half inch. These are catastrophic storm potentials the likes of which we’re just starting to experience. So Katrina would be not a once in a hundred years storm, but a once in five years storm. And it wouldn’t be just on the gulf coast of the United States. It could be in the Pacific. It could be in southeast Asia or elsewhere. So it’s the displacement of people.

Gradual warming also means that rainfall patterns change. So the Pacific northwest gets drier. In Alaska, there are forest fires. Agriculture suffers. People can’t … especially in the lesser developed countries, they can sustain the traditional living patterns. They’re going to move. So populations shift and move. That causes national security concerns for governments.

Source: World Changing, 9/19/05; Speech at Clinton Global Initiative

Clark blogs on Katrina and national goals on TPM Cafe

Every day American technology and manufacturing skills are sent abroad, along with American jobs.  Where is the leadership?

Again, just this past week, there was at least 36 hours notice that a major hurricane was going to hit the Gulf Coast, including likely a devastating blow to New Orleans, which certainly came to pass.  The President continued with his regular schedule on Monday and Tuesday in California, Arizona, and Texas to hold some staged Medicare events and enjoy more vacation time, while finally returning to the White House yesterday.  The joint task force including National Guard set up by the Pentagon failed to be on the scene in New Orleans in a timely manner to stop the looting and assist in the evacuation.  Where is the leadership?

Then just this morning, the President claimed that no one could have anticipated the levee breaches we’ve seen in New Orleans after Katrina hit.  That’s not leadership, that’s an excuse.  In fact, people have predicted this kind of disaster for many years, including President Bush’s own FEMA in 2001, when they ranked hurricane flood damage to New Orleans among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing America.  Instead, funding was significantly cut back, leaving key engineering projects on hold.  Instead, this Administration focused on the war in Iraq, tax cuts, and private sector economic growth without asking the American people to make needed sacrifices for the good of the country.  Again I ask you, where is the leadership?

You’ve got to keep asking that question.  What I learned about leadership is that you have to give people challenging goals and work with them and inspire them to reach them.  You’ve got to have the courage to set goals and make a difference.

Leadership for America starts with the leader’s vision of where you want the country to be.  And that’s the problem we have in America today.  We need visionary leaders who can see the promise and potential of our country and take us there.  We can find those leaders again — and we must.

TPM Cafe 9/1/05