Of Global Warming and Slavery: Now I’ve read everything

I saw the headline “Obama Lacking Clear Vision” in the Albuquerque Journal and said to myself “duh” and almost didn’t read the article. Good thing I did.

Not surprisingly, since the writer was affiliated with UNM, the article is an attack on Obama from the left. He takes the president to task for not taxing his buddies at GE and for being wishy-washy. Fairly boiler plate stuff so far. But then the author makes two statements that still has me shaking my head:

First, “the most critical issue immediately facing our country is not entitlement reform, but global warming” and then “Global warming and its mitigation is to the 21st century what the abolition of slavery and the Civil War was to the United States in the 19th Century.”

WOW!!! First and foremost, it is clear from a variety of polls that a vast majority of Americans care a great deal about many issues much more than they do about global warming. Obviously, polls don’t make for the truth, but how can the clear collapse of the US economy and the destruction of our living standards due to over-spending even compare to the potential for man made global warming which may be addressed through improved technology or may not even occur.

Comparing global warming — something that is happening as a result of our own actions (if it is indeed happening) — to human slavery is just plain silly and not really worth debating at length.