clipped from: www.thenation.com   
It is quite amazing. No major politician these days would think of giving a speech without the obligatory three or four paragraphs on global warming and energy. They tell us that it is a crisis, which is a laugh since we have been telling them it's a crisis for the past twenty years.

What the politicians propose that we do about it now is simple: nothing. The leading candidates in both parties are given to talking about "benchmarks" we are to meet by 2016 or 2025 or 2050. One of those dates, they promise us, is the year we will be "energy independent," which they would have us think is the same as being at an environmentally stable level.

What if the miracle doesn't come? Those space shuttles do not always go as planned, and then we have those national days of mourning for the dead astronauts. What if the scientists cannot come up with the miracle fuel? Do we have national days of mourning for a dying planet?