it is generating among other governments, Bush’s withdrawal from the
Kyoto process may be the first step in the transfer of global political
leadership from the United States to the European Union.
Conditions are shifting rapidly, meteorologically and otherwise.
Most of the public is now intuitively aware of climate change—and
extremely worried about changes in the weather. Growing numbers of
corporate leaders are realizing that the remedy—a world-wide transition
to renewable and high-efficiency energy sources—would, in fact, create a
huge surge of jobs and a dramatic expansion in the total wealth of the
global economy. And national as well as grassroots political and religious
activists are at last making the climate crisis the focus of campaigns. It is
too slow and too small—but it is a beginning. The issue is not whether
we will mobilize around the climate crisis. We have no choice. The issue
is whether we will do it in time.
Ross Gelbspan
Boston, Massachusetts
8 Introduction