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Editorial: Our next lofty mission: Curb global warming

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When the United States faced a global economic and national security threat from communism in the 1950s, we didn't debate whether it was real, whether it was Republican or a Democratic mission to counter it, or whether we should put off acting because it might cost money to fight it.

We all rolled up our nonpartisan American sleeves, went to work as a nation, built the greatest military, economic and political society in history, and we seized the highest ground - the moon.

The fabled Apollo program, in which we exceeded President Kennedy's challenge to put men on the moon within a decade, may well have been our greatest moment.

We will never know what might have happened in the showdown with communist Soviet Union - which also eyed the high ground - had we not achieved that lofty goal and shown all people what a great, free democracy can do when it is united in purpose and goal.

But along with that achievement came an unexpected bonus. Through the eyes of our astronauts, including New Mexican Harrison Schmitt, and through the cameras they used on the moon, we saw spaceship Earth in all its beauty and fragility, lighted by the sun just over the lunar horizon.

Indeed, while our race to space may have been driven by national security considerations, among the greatest benefits has been our new ability to see and analyze Earth from outside its protective atmosphere.

Those studies, and thousands more here on the planet, have shown unequivocally that Earth is in trouble. It has a fever. And, scientists agree, we human beings have caused it and are continuing to drive it higher through our carbon emissions from fossil-fuel power plants and internal combustion engines. Like the glass panes of a greenhouse, this increased carbon in the atmosphere traps significantly more of the sun's energy and heat, raising the global temperature.

But you knew that. We all know that. Scientists have been telling us that for the better part of four decades. We didn't need former Vice President Al Gore to do his popular documentary - "An Inconvenient Truth," about global warming - and win an Academy Award to know that. We didn't need a dozen prominent American companies and utilities, including Public Service Company of New Mexico, saying we need to reduce emissions to address climate change to know that.

We didn't need another scientific conference in Brussels this week showing data on global warming as a "highway to extinction" to know that. We didn't even need the scientists at that conference to complain loudly that special interests - the fossil fuel industries and certain governments that heavily embrace them - were trying to manipulate science to minimize the threat to know that.

Yet, what has this great nation done about that? We have allowed our political and industrial leaders to ignore or distort the science and bury their heads in the sand and do nothing - absolutely nothing - while the fever rises, because acting will have serious economic, political and social consequences.

That's as irresponsible as a parent deciding to watch more TV rather than deal with a child's 102-degree fever, because it's inconvenient, and it's going to cost some money to see a doctor.

The potential implications are frightening:

• Melting polar ice caps and glaciers.

• Rising sea levels that will flood coastal areas where most of the U.S. and global population lives.

• Shifting agricultural lands that could severely affect our ability to feed a still growing population.

• More severe weather extremes, including hurricanes and tornadoes, with associated increases in the severity of flooding.

• The probable extinction of species unable to cope with dramatic changes in their environments in a relatively short span.

• The possible emergence of new diseases as tropical ecosystems expand.

No, scientists cannot absolutely say with certainty exactly what will or will not happen. But increasingly they see a big picture that is dark and ever-darkening. And many are becoming impatient with the failure of the world's leading governments, including ours, to do much of anything about it.

Clearly there are many nations, industries and companies with vested interests in maintaining the status quo. So here's what we're going to do to counter them, because we must. We, as people who have long-standing reputation for global leadership, are going to take the initiative by demanding that our government act now against the global threat of climate change.

We will lead the world - asking Europe, Russia, China, Japan and India to lead with us - in finding the best solutions to the problem, including green cars and trucks, alternative power generation from wind and solar, and safer nuclear energy.

We will demand that the White House and Congress collaboratively adopt the equivalent of an Apollo program - the best and the brightest working on global warming from all sides, with sufficient money to make a difference.

This may require widespread national and personal sacrifice. But it also will generate new economies, industries and jobs - not to mention that warm and fuzzy feeling we get when we know we're doing the right thing.

Our American way of life is at risk - more so than it is by any threat posed by any nation on the planet or all the terrorists acting in concert against us at once.

To realize this is to understand that global warming knows no political boundaries or ideologies. It will devastate without regard to national borders, political parties, gender, race, creed or species.

But we can do something. After all, we put men on the moon. And you know what they always say: "If they can put men on the moon, why can't they - in this case - reduce emissions from cars, trucks and power plants?" The answer is obvious. We can. We should. We must.