WE ARE ALL NOW GREEN

President Obama has stated that economic recovery and future progress must be addressed at the same time as our energy supply and environmental concern, especially global warming. In fact he has linked the three as integral parts of the same problem.

I have no problem with global warming, the earth has been on a warming trend for the last 10,000 years. Now I say this as someone who lives at 18 inches above sea level on an island and has a second home so close to the sea that it is caked in salt residue after strong storms. I know hurricanes, having lost parts of both homes to hurricanes. The island I live on was actually the product of a hurricane in the early 20Th Century. I live my talk and I repeat I am not afraid of global warming, in fact I welcome it since the earth is basically a cold place.

I find that my friends are about evenly split between those who state unequivocally that global warming is a problem and we better do something about it immediately and those who deny that global warming is even occurring. Both sides have plenty of ammunition and supporters. Neither one has won the battle for public opinion. The average Joe is worried by cries that the sky is falling but is equally concerned that stemming global warming will cost him an arm and a leg.

As far as I am concerned the debate is over. The corporate world has now embraced global warming and is using it as the best marketing tool since the American dream of owning a home and a car. We are now constantly barraged by ads urging us to be "green." WalMart proudly announced that it intends selling millions of new light bulbs that use much less energy. Auto makers are flogging ad nauseum their "hybrid, electric, and new fuel" cars. We are urged to eat food grown without chemicals. In fact we are urged to eat less, period.

I wonder how the avid environmentalists view their cause being usurped by the very corporations that they held up as the villains causing all the ecological disasters. How will they deal with a march to global purity led by such bad guys as Exxon, DuPont, Dow, and so on? Talk about unintended results.



Leo Cecchini

April 2009