When judging the character of Mitt Romney‘s presidential campaign, it’s useful to consider the headline of one of the press releases his aides issued this spring: “In Case You Missed It: Governor Mitt Romney’s Message Resonating With The American People”. Yes, that’s the actual title.
It’s not an accident that voters just might not be able to tell that Mitt Romney’s message is resonating with the American People. Mitt Romney’s message is too far off target with the real concerns of American citizens to have a chance of resonating.
Take the issue of global warming, for instance. Americans who pay attention to the news are very concerned about global warming, and with good reason. With every passing year, there’s more cause for concern about the future, and more real damage taking place in the present. Global warming is an obvious fact, and it’s a significant impact upon people’s lives right now.
Mitt Romney, however, just hasn’t seemed to notice. I did a Google search for the phrase “global warming” on Mitt Romney’s campaign web site, and only two pages came up. One of those hits was a complaint by a reader that Mitt Romney wasn’t saying anything about his plans for dealing with environmental threats. The other was a short news item in which Romney complained that “some in the Republican Party are embracing the radical environmental ideas of the liberal left,” and protested that “Kyoto-style sweeping mandates, imposed unilaterally in the United States, would kill jobs, depress growth and shift manufacturing to the dirtiest developing nations. Republicans should never abandon pro-growth conservative principles in an effort to embrace the ideas of Al Gore.”
Oh, dear. Has Mitt Romney still not figured out that the whole point of the Kyoto protocol was that it was a cooperative effort between nations, not imposed unilaterally? If Mitt Romney still doesn’t accept the reality of the global warming threat, I guess he thinks that scientific research is just another one of those “ideas of the liberal left”.
In case you missed it, Mr. Romney: The grave threat of global warming has now been accepted even by George W. Bush. Get on the problem, or get off the ballot.
(Source: MittRomney.com)
So do most other people. But they won’t be able to ignore it soon (and it’ll be far too late to do anything about it then).
You keep making the claim, Tom, that global warming is irreversible. Are you just making that up or do you have a source for that?
Searching Google was your research? Romney is a big proponent of using biodiesel and ethanol to fuel our cars. That would reduce emissions that are believed to contribute to global warming.
Governor Romney: “We’re using too much oil,” Romney said. “We have an answer. We can use alternative sources of energy — biodiesel, ethanol, nuclear power — and we can drill for more oil here. We can be more energy independent and we can be far more efficient in the use of that energy.”
It’s my impression from some brief reading that biodiesel and ethanol use is not clearly linked to a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. They are a way of cutting back on fossil fuel oil use, but that’s not the same as cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions.
Bjalder, are you aware of definitive research connecting biodiesel and ethanol use to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions? If so, I’d appreciate a link. Thanks.
No, searching his campaign site using Google, Bjalder. What a candidate chooses to put out on their site is an important indication of their policy priorities and prejudices.
And, Jim’s right. biodiesel and ethanol are red state pork – not a solution for global warming.
IH-it’s not “irreversible”, but it can’t be “fixed” in less time than it takes the global environment (air, oceans, rainforests, etc.) to adapt. It isn’t going to be helped by human beings contiually pumping CO2 into the atmosphere at greater rates than the earth can handle any longer. Most of my sources are New Scientist magazine (or website), NOAA, and just google in global warming to find many other links to what’s happening. Gore’s movie was very informative too. i hope that helps.
Jim,
The process of burning fossil fuels releases carbon that was locked away in the Earth’s sediments and rocks millions of years ago. The natural processes that would release this carbon to the atmosphere take tens to hundreds of millions of years. By burning fossil fuels we are doing in decades what Mother nature does in millions of years.
In contrast, the burning of biodiesel and ethanol is releasing carbon into the atmosphere that was taken out of the atmosphere (by growing plants) in the last year or two. The result is that there is no net increase in atmospheric CO2 by the burning of these fuels.
Mark, that’s a great idea, except that if the Great Plains were growing naturally instead of growing biodiesel, then they would be storing carbon in the ground, in the wonderful way that grasses build up thick rich organic content in the soil, and not re-releasing it the same year back into the air.
No net increase? Well, that depends on how you define it. Devoting land to crops for biodiesel takes a natural carbon-trapping ecosystem out of commission. I think that counts as a net increase.
Whichever way you spin it, biodiesel is not a solution for global warming.
You’re right, the way I described it is very simplistic and there are other things to take into consideration. However, anything that will reduce the amount of fossil fuels that we burn will decrease the amount of CO2 that we put into the atmosphere. No one energy source can replace fossil fuels, but biofuels can be a part of the solution.
Biofuels can be part of weaning us off of fossil fuels, but I don’t think that they’re a significant part of a long-term solution. Part of the reason that politicians have grabbed onto ethanol and biodiesel is in order to gain votes red states like… Iowa!
i appreicate whoever has written this article mr.romney if u are elected president u better addresss this problem or else something really bad is going to happen so either get on the real problems or get off the election thats why u are old and crusty and irresponsible if u r going to run for president addresss the important things befors the dumb things duh!!!!!!!!!!!!!… i hhave nothing else to say… democrats rule!!!!!!!!!!