The Political Climate: an ongoing commentary on the NH Primary and Climate Change

The future of our climate seems relatively promising when one looks through the keyhole of the state of New Hampshire.  Scores of local town energy committees have organized as a result the New Hampshire Climate Change Resolution and everyday citizens are adapting ways to lead more efficient lives.  Unfortunately, Tom Friedman reminds us that, “the growth in Doha and Dalian ate all your energy savings for breakfast.”

Friedman’s New York Times op-ed “Doha and Dalian” captures a vision of the two rapidly developing super-cities in Qatar and China that may help to ground our environmental optimism in New Hampshire.  Friedman recognizes that “it is a blessing that their people are growing out of poverty.  And, after all, they’re just following the high-energy growth model pioneered by America,” and reminds us that “we’re still the world’s biggest energy hogs, but we’re now producing carbon copies in places you’ve never heard of.”

Doha and Dalian remind us that climate change can not be solved by New Hampshire’s local energy committees alone.  It is not enough for the next president to merely say that America will not consider emissions caps unless India and China do so as well.  The next president must actively use diplomacy to convince the international community to join a cooperative global effort to combat climate change.