Climate Change Hasn't Been Important 'til Now & Other Bologna

President Obama finally mentioned climate change in his second inaugural speech. We, (those who believe that climate change is real, man-made, and scary as hell,) have all been waiting. And waiting. And waiting for this moment. He said he would be aggressive in his campaign to take charge, and even went so far as to say climate change is an issue worth sidestepping Congress for and throwing down some of that executive power he, in my opinion, didn't utilize enough during his first term. Congress is a mess, and we all know it. 

“We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” Obama said during his speech. “Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.” Yeah. About that. I have heard Republicans politicians deny climate change as an issue since 2006 when a little film called An Inconvenient Truth came out, and lately I have noticed a change in their collective response. 

Kiribati, an island country in the Pacific, is trying to relocate
its citizenry due to rising sea levels which is making their
country uninhabitable.
photo taken from the telegraph.co.uk

Of course this is completely anecdotal- it's my blog, after all- but it seems to me that politicians do not have the same confidence in their denial of climate change. Of course we all remember the shift from "global warming is a hoax and isn't happening" to "climate change is real, but not man-made. It's cyclical!" Well, recently I have heard waning in the right's voice on the matter. They do not sound as confident as they once did. That confidence has become smugness, and it sounds to me like they don't even believe what they are saying. Well, how could they? 2012 was the warmest year on record, and there are plenty of countries who are already in big trouble. 

Denying climate change is complete bologna, of course, and so is the fact that it has taken this long for President Obama to give the topic any real mention in a speech or public setting. He is a smart guy, so what took him so long? I am not getting my hopes up about any significant advancements in the realm of cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions, or changing the way people think about how their actions affect the world as a whole. (See don't take my gunz and I don't wanna pay no taxes for evidence of just how little we seem to care about the collective.) 

taken from livinggreenmag.com

But in a country where even the right seems not to believe what they are saying anymore, and states are being threatened by droughts, wildfires, and super-storms of all kinds, when is it time to say enough is enough? If it isn't now, and President Obama does not follow through on working to deal with climate change, then that will be the biggest, fattest, juiciest log of bologna of all. 



*You can read about President Obama's speech and regulatory action plan to move forward on the matter of climate change here.