We've Lost The Luxury Of Dealing With Long-Term Problems. People Are Dying Right Now.

There's the short-term problem: getting through the summer. And there's the medium-term problem: getting through the fall, winter, and spring. We knew back in the 1970s that we needed to address global warming and our dependence on oil. We ignored the problem all through the Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II years. It's like when you ignore the fact that you're overspending and not balancing your checkbook. You reach a point where all you can do is scramble to cover the fees on the bounced checks. That's where we are right now.

NYT reports that:


Global climate change is threatening Europe's crops in a frightening and serious way. This is the fall/winter/spring problem. Scorching temperatures and drought could destroy up to 20 percent of Poland’s grain harvest, warned the country’s agriculture minister, Andrzej Lepper. “It is quite simply dramatic, and if the weather does not change we could have a disaster,” he said on Polish Radio.

Germany is facing crop losses of up to 50 percent in the worst-hit regions, according to Gerd Sonnleitner, the president of the national farmers association. Crop failures in Europe that range between 20 and 50 percent. Poor people are going to go hungry in Europe this winter and next spring.

Here's the shorter-term problem caused by global climate change; Europe appears to be on the verge of massive power failures: A second type of warning was also issued in Europe — about strained electricity supplies . . . .

Europe’s increased demand for air-conditioning could make summer a greater challenge than winter for electricity suppliers, a report by the Datamonitor Group warned.

Nuclear power stations in France and Spain have been forced to cut output because the river water normally used to cool reactors is too warm.

Low water levels in the Po River in northern Italy affected hydroelectric supplies, prompting power shortages in Rome that knocked out air-conditioning and left people trapped in elevators.

And, then, as I reported earlier, there's the threat of forest fires caused by global climate change: Forest fires affected regions as far afield as Corsica, in the Mediterranean, where homes near the capital, Ajaccio, were threatened, and the Czech Republic, Finland, and Sweden.

I'll say what I've said before. A real leader, far from planning a week off in August, would be dealing with this emergency 24/7. We need serious, mandatory, conservation measures to conserve our electrical supplies. We need to prepare for the high prices, starvation, and food riots likely to occur either this spring or next. We need controls on the use of non-essential electricity and non-essential water. We need a leader to explain to people what's happening and why radical conservation is necessary right NOW.

Bush will be spending a week in August in Crawford clearing brush.