We owe it to our children to ramp up global-warming fight

We are stewards of our children's future, and it's damn well time that we gave them a future that is not irreparably damaged by our addiction to carbon dioxide.

Once again, the world's leading scientific experts on climate change have issued a warning that time is running out. In 2001, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said science is "66 to 90 percent sure" that greenhouse gases are driving climate change that will be catastrophic unless nations take action.

The IPCC on Friday issued an update, and its confidence level is now 90 percent, which in scientific circles is "very high confidence." Science is constantly evolving — there is no 100-percent certainty so long as research continues.

Can we stop quibbling about this overwhelming consensus of the world's best scientific brains and move to Step Two: doing something about it?

The recent election helped, but the obstinacy of President Bush means Congress must produce big majorities — perhaps veto-proof — to bring this nation into line with the rest of the developed world.

Major Republican leaders in Congress and elsewhere support action, but they must overcome some serious congressional roadblocks. Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, who infamously called global warming a "hoax," lost his Energy Committee chairmanship with Democratic control, but threatens to filibuster global-warming bills.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is trying an end run around House Energy Committee Chairman John Dingell, a made-in-Detroit hardliner. Pelosi's special committee on global warming may propose automobile rules Dingell has killed in the past. But a lot of Democrats campaigned on this issue; Dingell's base has been weakened.

But as with Iraq, much of the burden of pounding common sense into the White House falls to sensible Republicans. Fortunately, two of the most visible, Sen. John McCain and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, have taken leading roles in opposing greenhouse gases.

California is everyone's love-hate state — Americans move there in droves, yet we make fun of its culture and try to avoid "Californicating" our once-pristine lands.

But California leads against global warming, and give Schwarzenegger credit: The Gubernator has proved to be more than a set of muscles.

Unbelievably, some of California's major efforts have been opposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, which under previous presidents of both parties was actually a force for the environment. California has adopted cap-and-trade rules for industry, increased fuel standards for cars, invested in solar power and changed power-company incentives from sales to conservation.

As a result, electricity consumption per person in California is well below the national average, and has remained stable, while it is increasing rapidly in other states, particularly the "red" states of the South and Midwest.

Yet, even in hard-core Bush country, action is taking place. Midwestern farmers benefit from ethanol (as do Eastern Washington farmers), and wind power is ramping up in wide-open spaces. There is even hope that Southwest states will wake up to the solar energy that attracts so many "snowbirds" and trap it rather than build more coal-fired power plants to heat their swimming pools.

Major industries increasingly support federal controls. Firms such as DuPont, General Electric and Alcoa, more than the rest of us, realize that volunteerism — the Bush mantra — simply means a free ride and competitive advantage for bad behavior. They also understand that state-by-state regulations drive up their costs and confuse their customers.

Even elements of Bush's "base" — evangelicals — are deserting him; the Evangelical Climate Initiative urges Bush to provide world leadership. Bush's reaction to IPCC was to reject mandatory greenhouse-gas controls, leaving solutions in the tender hands of Exxon and friends.

The denial of global-warming science that still exists here is not a factor among our closest European allies. I was in Britain last fall when the three major parties held annual conventions, in which they competed to be the "greenest," particularly on global warming. A government report in October "demolished the last remaining argument for inaction in the face of climate change," proclaimed Prime Minister Tony Blair. Al Gore was treated as a hero in London and Edinburgh, his movie universally praised.

Globalization, driven by American corporations, is producing more greenhouse gases in the developing world. Middle-class Chinese and Indians will not continue to ride bicycles while we snort gas in our SUVs. Cheap imports carry an environmental price.

We cannot wait until 2009 and installation of a president who places sound science above ignorant instincts. The rest of us know better and we must demand action from our politicians. We owe it to future generations.

Floyd J. McKay, a journalism professor emeritus at Western Washington University, is a regular contributor to Times editorial pages. E-mail him at floydmckay@yahoo.com