7/23/09

George Will -- Any Rationale Necessary to Keep his Head in the Sand on Science and Ecology

Written by Will, it might as well read "Cool to science." (On the opinion page home link, the headline caption is "Cool to Climate Change.")

But the fact that climate change is a global problem is only one more reason for the U.S. to take a leadership role on this issue.

Instead, in addition to Will's blathering to the contrary, we see, on these same Washington Post editorial pages, editorial after editorial claiming that the U.S should drill more -- and thus expand the production of that which, predominantly here in the U.S. (and, along with agriculture, globally) is in fact causing the problem in the first place. (And which would have essentially no effect on oil imports for years -- let alone decrease the entrepreneurial incentive to move toward alternatives, to the extent it even would -- and at most minimal effect thereafter.)

Now that's leadership by the Post, particularly in combination with Will's fascinatingly contrived piece on foreign policy and climate change: Arguing to drill for more of that which causes the problem, and that which we need other countries to move off of, certainly gives us the moral, and credible, authority to make an effective case to the developing world, particularly India and China with over a third of the world's population and rapidly burgeoning energy economies, right?

Leadership. The U.S needs to take a leadership role, not a George Will head in the sand role.