Of course, what these short-sighted pro-business people don't realize is that we're already PAST the point of no return. Thanks to the Bush Administration's outright hostility towards anything resembling honest climate change science, the world's largest polluter -- the United States -- has set things in motion that will radically alter the planet for hundreds of years to come, and we're going to be paying the price for generations.
The 20th and 21st centuries will someday be remembered as a time of madness, when the pursuit of corporate profits was considered more important than life, health or even the future of the planet.
There are people who, still today, argue with a straight face that massive human pollution has absolutely zero impact on the environment. Rising world temperatures, the melting of polar ice and radical changes in global weather patterns are just "imaginary," they argue. These things aren't really happening, they tell us. And the more than 600 scientists representing 300+ nations who issued a joint report saying global warming is "very likely" caused by human activity are all suffering from delusions, we're told.
And you know who's supporting this denial of reality in the United States? Republicans. From President Bush all the way down to the web gossip kings, these deniers use misdirection, propaganda and their typical fear mongering to try to scare us into believing that protecting the environment will somehow destroy the U.S. economy.
I have news for ya, folks: the U.S. economy is already headed for financial ruin! And once these environmental changes kick in even further, sharply decreasing food production across North America, our economy will find itself in even worse circumstances.
You see, the only way to save the economy is to save the planet first. When the planet becomes inhospitable, there is no economy, period. But if you take care of the planet, it will reward you with abundance: food, medicine, clean water and fresh air. These things are prerequisites for all other human activity (and, therefore, economic activity) on the planet.
Humans are the only species that actually steal the future from their own children. I think it's time we put a stop to that and started honoring the planet that has given us so much abundance in the past -- and will continue to do so in the future if we would only stop destroying it.