You’re out at sea on a lovely boat, catching rainwater to drink and fish to eat, and you feel like you’re never going to have to return to shore. So, you head out into the very middle of the ocean.
There, one of the crew says that the boat has sprung a leak. It’s just a little bit of water on the floor, though, so people are expressing their doubts. One guy says that he just spilled his drink.
The water keeps rising, though, and by the next morning, the boat is starting to list. No one, except a crazy guy sitting up high on the mast, questions that the leak is there any more. However, there’s a big argument about what should be done.
The first mate suggests that everyone starts to bail water, but the three biggest paying anglers balk at the idea. “How am I supposed to catch any fish when I’m fiddling around with a bucket?” one asks, and the others nod in agreement.
The water rises higher. Even though some people are bailing, it’s not enough, and even the big fishermen are getting nervous. Still, they refuse to act. “I’m not going to stop fishing and pick up a pail until those other fishermen do it,” says one. “Well, I’m not going to stop fishing until he does it,” says another. A third fisherman turns his back on the conversation and humphs, casting a line into the increasingly stormy seas. “I’ll only stop fishing,” he says, “when I see everyone else on this boat bailing water. Why should I bother bailing water when there are two other people with big buckets who aren’t using them?”
The dynamic that’s leading to the sinking ship in this story is also leading to the roasting of our biosphere, and David Vitter is playing the role of the obstinate fisherman. Yesterday, he introduced S. 3699, legislation that would make it against the law to regulate carbon dioxide emissions until China, India and Russia regulate emissions.
Senator Vitter seems to think that the United States should not lead as an example to other nations, but follow other nations in a race to the bottom.
Nice story – captures the spirit of it succinctly. Our legislators are so “decoupled” from the life of ordinary citizens that they fail to even see the big picture anymore. They’re so in the pocket of corporate donors, special interests, and lobbyists that the country totally fails to grasp the seriousness of our ignorance. Climate change isn’t going to stop EVEN AFTER we finally decide to act and the consequences will be catastrophic for future generations. No tech silver bullet will be able to make things right in a short amount of time and playing around with manmade cloud cover by injecting tons of material into the atmosphere is only a delaying tactic that would probably have the effect of making it worse once we stopped (which MUST happen, since we don’t have an infinite amount of ANYTHING on the planet). It’s really too bad that we don’t get it as a species and will take much of the other species of plant, animal and marine life with us when we make conditions too harsh to adapt to for normal life.