Global Warming Topic of
Annual Conference on the Environment

My only criticism of this year’s West Virginia Conference on the Environment is that the only people who attended were environmentalists. I realize that not all the attendees would agree to this label, but it was true to varying degrees. Why is this a problem? After all it was an extremely informative conference… if you knew nothing about global warming. But, the audience consisted of people who knew about this issue.

Everyone in that room knew that there is technology currently available that can curb environmental pollution. Everyone in that room knew how global warming is affecting our world.

Even the industry representatives, who would of course never take the blame for being a major cause of ecological changes worldwide, at least acknowledged that those changes were occurring.

Then why am I so discouraged – even with all of this knowledge about the environment at this conference?

There were few – if any – policy makers! Few – if any – elected officials were present!

That in effect means that all of the discussions about better cars, and better buildings, cleaner air and cleaner water, "cleaner" coal (the "clean" coal promoters aren’t looking at where coal comes from, how it arrives at the power plant, nor at what happens to the ash left after coal is burned) and wind power, and all of the time and energy of individuals who truly seemed to care fell on an audience that has struggled for decades to enact change.

How can we continue to blame national leaders for

poor global environmental judgment when our own state officials turn a blind eye to these issues?

Global climate change is happening here at home. That’s why it’s called global. It happens everywhere.

It is November 5th and yesterday’s peak temperature was 82 degrees, surpassing the previous record high. Yet our own elected officials keep their heads in the sand hiding from the evidence of global warming. I wonder if they crank up the air conditioning in their state-owned vehicles, as they flee from the capitol any time someone mentions the environment.

In conclusion, vote responsibly!