The gap between leaders in Europe and North America on the issue of climate change is staggering.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Friday that the world will reach “catastrophic tipping points” on climate change within 15 years, unless serious action is taken to tackle global warming. In his strongest warning yet on the environment, the prime minister told fellow European Union leaders that the world faces ‘conflict and insecurity’ unless it acts now. ‘We have a window of only 10-15 years to take the steps we need to avoid crossing catastrophic tipping points,’ Blair said, in a joint letter with his Dutch counterpart, Jan Peter Balkenende.
In the U.S., the environment isn’t even on the list of significant issues to be discussed during the current mid-term campaigns. In Canada, at least, the Conservatives were roundly thumped in most of the media for the inadquacy, if not hypocrisy, of their Clean Air Act. Either North American leaders don’t get the urgency of the issue, or don’t care. I’m not sure which is worse.
