It was April, 1971 on the New York Times Op-Ed page that Buckminster Fuller and Maine Senator Edmund Muskie debated “the poetics of pollution”. Their lively discussion was spurred by an oil refinery proposed for an area not far from Bucky’s beloved home on Bear Island. Bucky demanded that Muskie intervene, emphatically opposing further mining and burning of fossil fuels. To go on using fossil fuels, Bucky said, “is equivalent to drilling a hole from the sidewalk into a bank vault, pumping out money and calling it free enterprise discovery”.
Bucky patiently and poetically pointed out that tapping the sun’s “cosmically inexhaustible energy” and harnessing the tides would generate sufficient renewable energy income to allow polluting fossil fuels to remain permanently in the ground.
Muskie, who actually had no power to block the refinery, but was a potential presidential candidate at the time, acknowledged the greener environmental possibilities. “The U.S. has the knowledge, the skill and treasure” to thus save our environment in this way, but “only our dedication — commitment — is in doubt.”
More than forty years later, while we allow the fossil fuel industry desperately dynamite the earth in order to gain release of remaining vaults of fossil fuels, these were almost identical to the words spoken by President Obama in his first press conference following his re-election in November. While acknowledging the urgency of the problem, he questioned whether America had the political will to tackle climate change in any meaningful way.
Needless to say, this is all getting a little wearisome for those of us who have been waiting for the world to change for forty years or more. The evidence of real and destructive impacts of continued and increased fossil fuel use is growing by leaps and bounds. Yet little is actually being done to counter it, or even control it, or to motivate greener technologies. As Bucky said that same year “Man knows so much, but does so little.”
There are a few good signs. An Eco-Watch summary report of climate change stories in 2012 makes it clear that the subject is slowly rising in the public consciousness: http://ecowatch.org/2012/story-of-year-its-global-warming-stupid/
But other critical issues like gun violence and the economy, along with silliness like Kardashian pregnancies (!) still too often steal America’s attention span from this, the one most critical issue facing the entire human race.
What we need is a new high profile leader, someone engaging and compelling, who can make Americans demand more and better action from our government. Making John Kerry our Secretary of State might help. Matt Damon makes a good effort in his anti-fracking movie called Promise Land. Too bad Oprah Winfry doesn’t care about anything more substantial than fluffy family room pillows these days. She could have been a real force for change. Michael Moore is too much about Michael Moore. George Clooney might be able to do it. Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert seem luke warm on the subject. Maybe Brad and Angela or Sean Penn could help. Even better might be an articulate, outspoken child.
While this may sound desperate, it has become obvious that the baby boomer generation, which is unfortunately still in power, is too selfish and myopic to manage this issue effectively. The paradox of our age is that we still have, forty years later, everything we need in order to turn this ship around in time. Except for the will to do it. Which is everything.
Time to 
Despite last week’s urgent warnings from the United Nations, World Bank and International Energy Authority, the mainstream American media remained virtually silent on climate change. Sex, shopping and the ‘fiscal cliff” dominated the headlines. To help make climate change news happen, use these easy links to demand coverage from the national media now:
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