For years the tobacco companies took the position that there was no evidence that smoking "caused" lung cancer. The petrochemical industry and the Bush administration are taking a similar tact. They claim that there is no global warming, and then they dispute the charge that the burning of fossil fuels contributes to the buildup of carbon deposits in the atmosphere. But some appears that the evidence from the ground is becoming to obvious to deny. Expect global warming to be the subject for debate in upcoming elections.
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What is happening in the ecology and economies of the North is becoming to apparent to ignore. Dan Lashof, a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a respected Washington-based group, told The Independent: "People in Alaska are starting to freak out. The retreat of the sea ice allows the oceans to pound the coast more, and villages there are suffering from the effects of that erosion. There is permafrost melting, roads are buckling, there are forests that have been infested with beetles because of a rise in temperatures. I think residents there feel it's visible more and more, more than any other place in the country."
Unitarian Universalists have been part of the conservation movement for generations, for a long time we thought "being green" was about saving wilderness. But now we coming to understand, "being green" is about saving our planet from our own system of power and privilege that has made consumers of us all.
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