The most important election for our time was the 2000 election. That election set the world on a dangerous path that may take at least a decade to reverse; that is if we are lucky enough to summon the political will to continue on our current trajectory.
We all know about the financial costs. The total global meltdown due to republican economic policies has brought the world to it's knees and eliminated much hard won progress for the middle class which had occurred over fifty years ago.
The human costs are incalculable. In lives lost due to the disastrous Bush presidency it begins with ignored threats to attack the World Trade Center. Then of course the misguided Iraq war and the incompetent management of the Afghanistan war.
Rectifying the damage of these debacles seems a daunting and overwhelming task. But they are not the most dangerous legacy left to us by the corrupt Bush Administration and the Republicans. No, the loss of precious time to address the challenges of climate change will prove to be the most dangerous legacy of all. For all his weaknesses I don't think there is anyone who believes that Al Gore would have neglected the consequences of global warming.
At the time of the 2000 election the powers that be were also aware that Gore would focus on mitigating climate change so the fossil fuel industry threw everything it had at the election.
That election pitted Bush-Cheney, overt oil industry representatives, vs. wonky Al Gore Jr., who studied climate science at Harvard and held the first congressional hearings to publicize the concern, which had been quietly discussed in government circles as far back as the Johnson and Nixon administrations.
The fossil-fuel industries threw everything they had to prevent a Gore presidency. As reported in Minnesota attorney Barbara Freese’s excellent book, “Coal: A Human History,” West Virginia’s coal industry took the lead in raising unprecedented sums of money and support for George W. Bush and ultimately delivered the state by 52 percent. Freese cites a Wall Street Journal report that top White House staffers agreed “it was basically a coal-fired victory.” If Bush had not won West Virginia’s traditionally Democratic five electoral votes, Gore would have won the election.
Yet very little campaign coverage in 2000 or since has stressed the roles of black vs. green energy, even though they represent one of the major differences between the two candidates and parties
Now with all
credible scientists stating that we have little time left to deal with the worst effects of climate change which if not addressed rapidly will lead to irreversible and catastrophic weather events will the media and will we finally focus on the most important issue our species has ever faced?