The Governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley is the latest US Governor to talk tough on climate.
Although putting limits on pollution could cost businesses in the short term, in the long term, O’Malley argues that the cost of inaction is much greater — the flooding of waterfront businesses and homes, and eventually, the extinction of humans.
“We need to move into a much more sustainable future or else we cease to exist as a species,” O’Malley, a Democrat, said at a press conference at the State House yesterday. “People can talk about the increased cost of things. But what sort of increased costs will come from a four foot rise in sea level for businesses located at Sparrows Point (the steel mill) or in Annapolis or in downtown Baltimore?”
“These are things that we must do, that we have to do, that we have a moral imperative to do in order to turn around the impending damage that is coming to all of us on this planet because of unchecked climate change,” O’Malley said.
“This bill recognizes that not only that global warming is a battle we all share. But for too long our aim in this fight has fallen too short. We are faced with the sad fact that our coastlines are eroding, that the planet is warming, and we have to do a better job of reducing the damage that human consumption and patterns in energy use are doing to our planet.”
However many business owners and Republicans aren’t buying it. Senator Richard Colburn, a Republican from the Eastern Shore, was skeptical that people have anything to do with climate change. He quoted from a radio talk show host who suggested that there is global warming on other planets — obviously not caused by humans.
That’s the most ludicrous argument from the skeptics I have heard so far.