When the august Financial Times of the UK compares the financial crisis with the climate crisis, and sees the financial crisis as a lesser concern, you know the future in the 21st century is not looking good:
drastic action to curb greenhouse gases, the world was on track to
double the concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere,
which it said would lead to a temperature rise of 6°C by 2100. Warming
on such a scale would have catastrophic results, long before the
century’s end.
In fact, the financial crisis should serve as a
warning of the far greater crisis that lies in store unless emissions
are cut, argues Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a US-based coalition
of institutional investors. “The subprime risk was something we should
have known about,” she says. “But we ignored it. We know about the risk
of climate change.
“The risk from climate change is substantially
larger than the subprime risk. Continuing to ignore it will bring us a
crisis much greater than we are dealing with now.”
Lord Stern
agrees: “The financial crisis is surely a very powerful lesson that the
longer you ignore risk, the more difficult the consequences. People had
a cavalier attitude to risk in general for the last 10 years. Let’s
hope they start taking all aspects of risk a little bit more seriously
– and particularly the risks of postponing action [on emissions].”
But there is some good news — Bruce Springsteen looks likely to play the Obama inauguration! (Sez The Los Angeles Times.) Springsteen also recently released a live version of Dream Baby Dream that expresses the thrust of the Barack Obama candidacy with great heart and a moving simplicity.
And isn't this a charming pic, from the newspaper and the Associated Press? So all hope is not lost.
Kit Stolz 
Utterly wonderful picture. Whenever I have seen a photo of the Obamas with their children, I am so touched by the evident love and devotion they have for one another. Thanks for posting this one.
Barbara
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