by David Nuttle

Created on: August 01, 2008   Last Updated: May 19, 2011

Our next President will follow the Bush "era" with its policies of improperly altering scientific documents to hide solid proof of global warming. The reality was that all those with the most "political payola" payments (significant campaign contributions) were able to influence the White House and Congress to effectively ignore global warming. Such political action helped the major polluters continue high levels of global pollution to dramatically increase their profits. Unless this type of corruption is ended, there is not much any President can do to mitigate global warming. A related problem is all the propaganda about global warming really being a hoax. The next President needs to make certain that we all get the scientific facts, without modification for political purposes, while acting to counter false information and propaganda about global warming.

To effectively deal with climate change there are many related issues out next President must be prepared to solve. In the area of diversity/biodiversity, our planet is experiencing the loss of numerous plant and animal species. Increased shortages of water, as well as shortages of food, feed, and habitat contribute to such losses. Desertification and deforestation are becoming increasing problems, and over 1 (one) billion people continue to cut trees and scrubs to make the charcoal they need for cooking and heating. Given the fact that global populations tend to increase, real solutions have been difficult to obtain. We have failed to educate people on the critical need for biodiversity as the underpinning of terrestrial ecosystems. Entire forests are being destroyed for timber or alternative uses of the land. Many plant species are being eliminated before we even discover their real value. Animals are killed in ever increasing numbers to provide exotic animal products, or for sport. In some cases the killing has no known reason, as in the case of 53 sea lions recently murdered on Pinta Island (in the Galapagos Islands).

Wealthy and polically powerful petroleum and coal companies will continue to fight for the right to produce, market, and burn large quantities of fossil fuels that contribute to the greenhouse gas problem, a major part of global warming. By hiring hundreds of lobbyists, and paying millions of dollars in annual "political payola", the petroleum industry has effectively owned the White House and Congress. In 2008, Congress only voted token support for "green" or alternative energy programs

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