Global Warming and Climate Change: The Debate is Over

It is a fact.  The debate is over.  Done.  Climate scientists agree that the Earth's temperature is rising and that it is a man-made event.  Evidence continues to pour in bolstering what we already know.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association just reported that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have hit their highest levels in over 800,000 years.  After one of the most extreme winters people in the US have ever seen, scientists are pointing to pollution from Asia as a contributing factor.

Now the issue facing us is just what are we going to do with this information.  Are we going to attack this threat head-on, as environmentalists want to do, or bury our heads in the sand as many business leaders and congressional GOP would prefer.  

Two stories caught my eye this week.  First, it was reported this morning that the Obama administration has once again punted on approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.  Not what environmentalists wanted to hear as a more preferable decision would have ended this highly polluting debacle here and now. But we will take what we can get for now.  Small victories are better than none at all.

But then there is this little ditty out of Oklahoma.  It just has to make you wonder where people's priorities are.  Do we want to clean up this planet and leave a better place for our children and our children's children?  Or are we going to continue to run it into the ground until it's too late?

Time is running out. 

The High Cost of Prescription Drugs and the Deficit

If you are not a follower of CBS's 60 Minutes you probably missed this excellent report from correspondent Steve Kroft back in 2007 and which demands a rerun now.  In it, Kroft details how the Prescription Drug Act - a piece of legislation that was written by the prescription drug industry and signed into law by President Bush - was wrangled through Congress through extraordinary measures such as threatening members and extending the voting period.  The piece shows how the original $395Bn cost of the program ballooned to a whopping $534Bn - a number that was withheld from Congress before the vote.  When Republican members decide to hold the Government hostage again in the name of deficit reduction, they need only look to this UNPAID FOR piece of legislation as one reason for that deficit.  It's all in there.  The reasons why the cost of drugs in this country is sky-high.  Why the Government cannot negotiate lower prices.  How former members and staffers of Congress leave for lucrative lobbying jobs with Big Pharma.  The clip is less than 10 minutes.  If you haven's seen it you should.  If you have, watch  it again then call/write your congressional delegation.     

The Video You Need To See Before You Spend Another Second Arguing About Health Care:

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