The IPCC has released its fourth report on Global Warming. This one indicates that the planet and all of humanity are in serious danger if we don't take a hard look at what we're doing to the planet.

The other day on Good Morning, America (bear with me, I'm going somewhere with this) Diane Sawyer sat across from Lou Dobbs and referenced a Wall Street Journal article suggesting that Dobbs was to run for president as an independent, practically giving Dobbs a come-hither stare while doing it. Lou Dobbs semi-blushed and coyly responded that it isn't where his interests lie right now. (Here's a transcript of the conversation and here is the article from the WSJ.) The article in the Journal read, in part:

Friends of Mr. Dobbs say he is seriously contemplating a race for the first time, although it's still unlikely. They spin a scenario under which the acerbic commentator would parachute into the race if Michael Bloomberg, the New York billionaire and favorite of East Coast elites, enters the field as an independent. With Hillary Clinton continuing to score badly in polls in the categories of honesty

[snip]

Mr. Bloomberg may well see an opportunity to roil the political waters by entering the race late. If so, Mr. Dobbs then sees a niche for a "fourth-party" candidate who could paint the three other contenders as completely out of touch.

As opposed to Lou Dobbs, that swinging hipster with his finger directly on the pulse of America.

I should put this up front: I couldn't care less whether Lou Dobbs runs for president or not. He's got hair that he wears parted and seems to enjoy wearing suits and those seem to be two of the big qualifications for being president. If the time ever comes that he officially throws his hat in the ring, I'll look at his stances on the various issues and judge him. I'll go out on a limb and suggest he probably supports lower taxes because he has a lot of money (and suits), but his specific stances on the issues are not really relevant. For the purpose of this rant, it's more relevant which issues he thinks are important.

This is the reason Lou Dobbs is a fascinating media figure to me (and not in a good way). He's picked two issues to focus on and basically every show that he does focuses on these same two issues. Uncle Lou thinks Immigration and the War on the Middle Class are the two most important things going on. He gets on TV and postures about them day in and day out. In fact, the interview Sawyer focused almost solely on the U.S.'s illegal immigration issues. He gets all surly about the administration's policies and waxes philosophical about what it's going to take for them to change their minds. He's not alone. Just about every single media person does this. I'm only picking on him because of that ludicrous exchange with Diane Sawyer.

My point (yes, I'm finally there) is this: When Lou Dobbs' Manhattan apartment with the view of the Hudson River is underwater because the Earth's average temperature has ticked up to the point that the glaciers finish their melting and the climate becomes so volatile that hurricanes and typhoons and other significant weather events (to use a TV phrase) are routine and completely destructive, do you think he's going to be upset that he didn't pick Global Warming? Do you think he's going to be even a little contrite about his completely misguided focus when Florida is underwater?

I think this is what our next president should have his or her eyes on, at least a little bit. I'm not saying that everything the IPCC is reporting is correct. I'm not saying that anything they're saying is necessarily correct. What I'm saying is what if it is? What then? Would it really be the worst thing in the world to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and to find alternative fuels (that aren't ethanol because screw the corn people too)? Would it be horrible to invent engines that burn cleaner or reduce our energy consumption even a little bit? Would that really be so bad?

I don't think it would be. Because at the end of the day, we'd all still be better off. Even if by some chance we weren't the reason that the globe was getting hotter, we'd have helped ourselves get cleaner and more efficient.

Maybe when Lou's running, he'll have changed his focus.

But probably not.

Labels: fun (no), my high horse