Diary of a Mad Voter: Dan Rostad

Global Terrorism akin to Global Warming?

By Dan Rostad, 12-10-07

We are always hearing about the human catastrophes of the war against terrorism, via the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Terrorists took the lives of many Americans on September 11th and the lives of many other innocents in attacks in Spain and Great Britain.

Terrorism is not limited to free and democratized countries, it is a global issue with global repercussions. The problem of terrorism in our world has become a paramount issue of human tragedy and suffering. Our country’s response to the War on Terror has become overwhelming in its cost, both in the in loss of human life and financial cost to our nation’s treasury.

It would be a reach to compare anything to the destruction caused by terrorism. That is why I was surprised to read a recent guest editorial by the President of Israel.

Shimon Peres, the President of Israel, wrote an op-ed piece titled, ”Global Warming: A threat equal to terrorism.” that appeared in many national newspapers. 

While the article has many valid arguments, it is hard to relate global warming as “a threat equal to terrorism” with comparable catastrophes. Suicide bombers are deployed all over the Middle East, suicide hijackers rammed airliners into skyscrapers, bombers blew up trains in Spain and trucks in England. We’re faced with the threat of dirty bombs in suitcases going off in major cities across the world, chemical or biological agents being released into populated areas. 

Maybe the only way that Peres and others like him can make their point about the consequences of global warming is for them to demonize it, heighten our fears and capture our attention.

Maybe the only way we can resolve the problems in our country and world today is to declare war on the problem and spend lots of money on it.

Personally, I can support the War on Terror, but I have never supported the war in Iraq.  Similarly, I can support a war on environmental waste and pollution, but don’t think I could support a war on global warming that might unjustly affect our country more than other polluters.

Labeling the problems and issues surrounding global warming with terrorist labels only serves to pit one group against another and makes no room for negotiation or compromise.

This week, solutions to the global warming issue are being discussed on a global level at the United Nations Climate Change Conference.  It will be interesting to see if this conference will conclude without labeling polluter nations with terrorist labels.

Debating global warming, its effects and its possible solutions, could be more productive and should be more effective, but only if it isn’t debated by those who act as fear mongers.  Let the debate and the solutions to global warming be the good news the press will gladly print.

Editor’s note: Dan Rostad’s weekly blogs are part of NewWest.Net/Politics’ “Diary of a Mad Voter” feature, a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post’s Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the ‘08 election cycle. For more columns check in with www.newwest.net/madvoter. And for more information on each of the bloggers, click here.

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Why do you say this:

"It would be a reach to compare anything to the destruction caused by terrorism. That is why I was surprised to read a recent guest editorial by the President of Israel comparing terrorism to global warming."

I think that the big threat Global warming of global warming is it will change resource distributions across the globe, namely water and arable land. Resource strains historically lead to resource wars.

Islamic terrorism is tied a resource war. Why do we even give a rip about the Middle East? Oil. al Qaeda was originally formed because bin Laden didn't like how the oil money in Saudi Arabia went to the royal family and didn't float all boats. He sees the United States as being a conspirator in keeping things this way, as it is easier (and cheaper) for us to keep a royal family, dictator, etc. happy and bribed than an entire population with skin in the game.

Any resource wars fought because of global warming are inevitably going to increase terrorism and instability. Shimon Peres understands this.

Unfortunately, you miss the point completely. 1 million people died in Bangladesh when a storm hit some years ago. 10,000 people died there again a few weeks ago and 1 million people had to leave their homes. Events like the Asian Tsunami of a few years ago and the increased hurricane activity in the US Gulf all take more lives than terrorists. The view that global warming is a bigger threat than terrorism (no just equal to it) is the view of leading British security expert, Chris Abbott and the head of the Federal Police (Mick Kelty); search the AUSTRALIAN web site for this story around November 17th.

The evidence of your missing education around the ramifications of Global Warming/Global Climate Change is clearly evident, yet you still feel compelled to have written this article. Interesting.

Lets forget the storms that John in Sydney (g'day John) brought up and lets focus on a few of the more obvious changes that have been observed so far:
1) Melting Arctic ice, year round pools. As the Arctic ice melts, it results in a decreased planetary albedo which will increase warming in the northern hemisphere even faster, This is directly observable over the last few years.
2) Southern Hemisphere warming is wiping out essential fisheries and habitats. As the temperatures in the southern hemisphere rise many species cannot adjust, mainly the minute ones that make up the base of the food chain. Oceanographic sterilization can be a very real outcome in a very short time.
3) Decreased access to resources such as fresh water are already happening at an increased rate over previous years. Every major government in the world has reported that issues involving essential resources will result in increased terrorism and human suffering.

Terrorism claims a few thousand a year, possibly in the tens of thousands. Climate change, just with those three issues above (and there are a LOT more) will kill hundreds of thousands a year and create a huge amount of human suffering. This isn't a far off enough event that you can live in comfort and ignorance for much longer.

At this point global warming is at a critical phase for our future as a species. It appears that we may not be able to reverse the effects soon enough, so we may have to make some tough decisions soon: Do we start moving people out of Manhattan? Where to? What about coastal low lying areas, mainly around our major ports? Where can we relocate those people? As people become crowded around fewer resources how will we conserve, given our wasteful social climate?

Those who have the knowledge and the intelligence to begin to understand the ramifications of the trending destruction of our environment are going to have to learn to shove people like Don Rostad aside, we're going to have to make sure that the politicians are ready to make decisions that will create hardships for people but result in the saving of millions of lives. It is coming to the point that all discussion about this topic is useless and is only harming us worse, by making believe that there is a real debate on the existence of Global Warming.