Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth…

With all eyes focused on the spiraling economic crisis for the past several weeks, little attention has been paid to two environmental bombshells, pieces of news that once again point to global warming as the most dire and urgent threat we face – even in the face of the current financial meltdown, and that’s saying something.

The Independent 9/23/08: “Millions of tons of methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide, are being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed. Massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats. Scientists believe that sudden releases of underground methane in the past have been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and the mass extinction of species. In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through ‘methane chimneys’ rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a ‘lid’ to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.”

Associated Press 9/26/08: “The world pumped up its pollution of carbon dioxide last year, setting a course that could push beyond IPCC’s projected worst-case scenario, international researchers said Thursday. Carbon dioxide jumped 3 percent from 2006 to 2007, an amount that exceeds the most dire outlook for emissions from burning coal and oil and related activities. Meanwhile, forests and oceans, which suck up carbon dioxide, are doing so at lower rates than in the 20th century.”

The Washington Post wrote about the second finding in a fine, strongly worded editorial today, “Earth Aboil.”  Yet even while they use words like “dire” and “urgency” and write that our federal government must “change its ways” and lead the effort to confront global warming, they have consistently refused to cover any candidates for Congress, including yours truly, who have made the fight against global warming a central focus of their campaign.  If the Post actually takes its own warnings seriously, why can’t they provide any coverage at all for Congressional candidates who do the same?  Does Planet Earth care whether the candidates who are calling for urgent action on this dire threat are Republican, Democrat, Green or Independent?

The inability of mainstream media to inject this most vital of issues into the election debate is one of the reasons so little is happening in Washington.  We will continue to wage that battle, regardless, and bring the message of a clean, renewable energy economy to the voters in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District.  When reading information like this, though, it’s hard not to conclude that we are running out of time.

Please join our campaign, and help us make this happen – now!