'Climate change' heats up

An old cartoon theme reemerged in my thoughts today like long-lost flotsam. Now, with the power of Google, I can unleash it on the world. Take that, Muslim Brotherhood!

What a wild and crazy week this has been. Just when I thought I was barking up a tree about climate change, along come 86 evangelical Christian leaders with their “Evangelical Climate Initiative.”

According to a story appearing in yesterday’s New York Times, the statement announcing the initiative notes, “millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors.”

The initiative calls for federal legislation to curb carbon dioxide emissions and encourages solutions to global warming through “market-based mechanisms.” Backers of the initiative plan to get their message out through radio and TV ads, church campaigns and educational events at Christian colleges.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, both with the greater evangelical community and conservatives in general. Already, other evangelicals are crying foul. According to the Times story, “Some of the nation's most high-profile evangelical leaders, however, have tried to derail such action. Twenty-two of them signed a letter in January declaring, ‘Global warming is not a consensus issue.’"

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal’s position on climate change has been rather curious of late. After President Bush’s State of the Union address, the paper ran an editorial, “Addicted to Polls,” that criticized the president’s turnabout on energy policy as caving in to public opinion—specifically fears over gas prices—in the run-up to the 2006 elections.

James Taranto, in his February 1 “Best of the Web Today” column, had this to say about Bush’s energy proposals:

“One decidedly false note came when Bush complained that ‘America is addicted to oil’ and promised new government programs aimed at a great goal: to replace more than 75% of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. This seemed just like wrongheaded palaver, boob bait for bobos. If we're going to democratize the Middle East, why do we need to reduce imports of oil from the region?”

(Um, perhaps because it’s going to take decades to democratize the Middle East, and we can no longer wait for the oil sheikhs to stop funneling petrodollars to those who would harm us?)

What I find particularly interesting about these pieces—and indeed about the president’s “addicted to oil” remarks—is that there’s not a peep anywhere about climate change. For the president, it's about national security. And for the Journal, it's about, depending on who you're reading, the president playing to either public opinion polls or "bobos."

It’s almost as if the president and the Wall Street Journal were hedging their bets. Just in case the meteorological freak show again rears its ugly head this summer.

Endnote:

Anyone see the Grammys? What a snore. Well, maybe not entirely. McCartney’s “Helter Skelter” packed a wallop. And seeing Sly Stone, one of my musical heroes, on stage again was a joy to behold, even if he only stuck around for a minute or two. God bless, Sly. I dug that Mohawk! The Bones jury is still out on the teaming of Macca with rappers Jay-Z and Linkin Park for a postmodernized “Yesterday.” If you missed it, you can catch it here. Crazy, man. Crazy.