{"id":23574,"date":"2010-11-17T08:23:01","date_gmt":"2010-11-17T15:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=23574"},"modified":"2010-11-17T12:12:28","modified_gmt":"2010-11-17T19:12:28","slug":"we-must-start-addressing-our-serious-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/11\/we-must-start-addressing-our-serious-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"We must start addressing our serious challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Two features in the Sunday edition of the New York Times point to the dramatically perilous future we might face if we don\u2019t start seriously addressing the challenges before us.<\/p>\n

The first dealt with a politically hot topic: The federal deficit. The Times came up an interactive chart you can use to devise your own plan to address the deficit. You can find the chart here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what The Times had to say about how daunting a challenge<\/a> the deficit really is:<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine that Democrats and Republicans somehow came together and agreed on a grand bargain to cut the deficit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey decided to cut the pay of federal workers over the next several years, close military bases, reduce foreign aid, eliminate earmarks, expand the payroll tax and cut Social Security benefits for high earners, as the chairmen of a bipartisan commission recommended last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats also accepted the plan from John Boehner, the presumptive House speaker, to make large cuts to social programs. Republicans accepted President Obama\u2019s proposal to let the Bush tax cuts expire on income above $250,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the two parties managed to do all of this, how much of the country\u2019s long-term deficit would they eliminate?<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout one-third of it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Try it out. The chart makes clear that doing just what liberals want, or just what conservatives want, doesn\u2019t cut it. There are difficult decisions and massive compromises to be made.<\/p>\n

Then consider this: Solving The Times\u2019 chart only cuts the deficit to a level \u201cthat economists consider sustainable.\u201d It doesn\u2019t eliminate the entire deficit \u2013 and it does nothing to address the other massive problem of the nation\u2019s debt.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s be honest. In the current political climate, Democrats won\u2019t accept Boehner\u2019s plan, and Obama has already pretty much abandoned his proposal to let the Bush tax cuts expire because the GOP wouldn\u2019t support it.<\/p>\n

Melting ice sheets threaten coasts<\/h3>\n

The other Times\u2019 feature was an article<\/a> that highlighted a second frightening situation. While the American public and politicians are busy debating whether climate change is caused by humans \u2013 or whether it\u2019s even happening at all \u2013 this is what\u2019s going on:<\/p>\n

\u201cScientists long believed that the collapse of the gigantic ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica would take thousands of years, with sea level possibly rising as little as seven inches in this century, about the same amount as in the 20th century.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut researchers have recently been startled to see big changes unfold in both Greenland and Antarctica.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result of recent calculations that take the changes into account, many scientists now say that sea level is likely to rise perhaps three feet by 2100 \u2014 an increase that, should it come to pass, would pose a threat to coastal regions the world over.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the calculations suggest that the rise could conceivably exceed six feet, which would put thousands of square miles of the American coastline under water and would probably displace tens of millions of people in Asia.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To make that most tangible:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the United States, parts of the East Coast and Gulf Coast would be hit hard. In New York, coastal flooding could become routine, with large parts of Queens and Brooklyn especially vulnerable. About 15 percent of the urbanized land in the Miami region could be inundated. The ocean could encroach more than a mile inland in parts of North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbroad, some of the world\u2019s great cities \u2014 London, Cairo, Bangkok, Venice and Shanghai among them \u2014 would be critically endangered by a three-foot rise in the sea.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The problem? Neither the United States, nor any other nation, has \u201cmade tracking and understanding the changes in the ice a strategic national priority,\u201d the article states. That means researchers lack basic information, so it\u2019s impossible for scientists to be certain of how serious the situation is.<\/p>\n

One of the last satellites that was watching ice sheets recently shut down. Funding has been cut. More satellites won\u2019t be launched into space for at least five years.<\/p>\n

Serious times<\/h3>\n

We \u2013 the people of this state, nation and planet \u2013 are living in serious times. Yet our politicians and media spend too much time focused on partisan bickering and less important issues like speculation on when Prince William might get married<\/a>. They are controlled by two-year election cycles and 24-hour news cycles. In general, they only think about the immediate future. They\u2019re not tackling our long-term problems.<\/p>\n

Our corporations spend billions to influence politicians, media outlets and public opinion. Many of them are contributing to our problems. Making a profit is more important to them than protecting our future.<\/p>\n

And we citizens allow our political, media and corporate systems to be dysfunctional, to avoid tackling long-term problems. But these are not problems we can ignore any longer.<\/p>\n

There appears to be a good chance that many of the world\u2019s coastal areas are going to be swallowed by oceans during this century, requiring ridiculously expensive infrastructure projects or massive relocations of people and maybe even cities. The question may not be whether we\u2019re going to have to deal with it, but, instead, how are we going to do it?<\/p>\n

While the problem of the nation\u2019s deficit and debt is simply overwhelming, it\u2019s not going to go away. It threatens the national and world economies and must also be dealt with.<\/p>\n

These are some of the complicated, difficult tasks our society must confront even though we\u2019re so hesitant to think long-term and act accordingly.<\/p>\n

We can start by electing politicians who pledge to think long-term \u2013 and re-electing the few who already do that. We can support media organizations that focus on shining light on important issues and potential solutions. We can boycott businesses that are part of the problem.<\/p>\n

In other words, we the people need to become more educated and deliberate in how we live our lives. We need to take a more active role in our society. The powers-that-be won\u2019t change their ways unless we as citizens demand it.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Commentary archives<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two features in the Sunday edition of the New York Times point to the dramatically perilous future we might face if we don\u2019t start seriously addressing the challenges before us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[193,118,147,134,107,116],"class_list":["post-23574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-corporate-america","tag-economy","tag-environment","tag-media","tag-roundhouse","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}