The Health of People and Our Planet

My colleague's blog "The Blog has Landed" in the post entitled "'Inconvenient' Time" appropriately highlights the significance and severity of our planet's potential problems due to global warming. Discussions on global warming tend to revolve around the reduction of green house gases. A related issue which tends to get less attention, but one that has been discussed a lot in the news this week, is the issue of adaptation. That is, how will we adapt to the tragic effects of global warming, who will be most impacted by the effects, and who is responsible to pay for adapting to these negative impacts.
Two distinct factions are involved in negotiations to address global warming: the developed nations, and the developing nations. In his Wall Street Journal article Samuel Fankhauser states, "developing countries, which likely will suffer some of the worst impact of any significant warming, have made it clear that they will not agree to an emissions-reduction package without substantial help in coping with the increased flooding, drought, and disease that many scientist say will result from a warming planet."
My colleague alludes to the fact that developing countries in Asia will be producing increased amounts of greenhouse gases in the future. However, it is clear that up to the current time the developed countries in Western Europe and the Americas are mostly responsible for creating this problem. Now it's time for these developed nations to be held accountable and help developing nations pay the high costs of adaptation.
The fact of the matter is we live in a complex world with multiple complex problems. We can not afford to deal with only one problem at a time. Healthcare in the United States is a critical problem that must be fixed as soon as possible. At the same time, the issue of global warming is critical to the entire world and will require an effective global solution. It's important to realize that these topics are not simply fodder for entertaining news programs. These are real issues that require real solutions that will demand changes in human behavior for all.

Another Futile Afghan War

Throughout recent history, one regime after another has acted to impose their will, ostensibly as liberators, upon an Afghan nation. Time and time again the foreign occupiers have failed to produce a government that has served the Afghan people well. Yet, President Obama has decided to dedicate more resources to a mission that history has proven impossible.
The United States' occupation of Afghanistan was a direct result of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center, an assault upon our nation which was planned and executed with the full support of the Taliban supported Al-Qaeda. The original purpose for attacking Afghanistan was to throw the Taliban out of power. Now there is an ongoing goal to keep them from regaining control of the government. For some reason we presume that the Afghani people are going to take up our cause and risk their own lives to prevent the Taliban from regaining their foot hold; we are going to risk the lives of our soldiers to support a cause that the Afghan people may not care about and be willing to support.
When the U.S. helped the Afghans defeat the Soviet Union during the Soviet-Afghan war, instead of proving our might and helping them rebuild their nation we simply disappeared leaving their country in ruins. Why should the Afghans have any trust in the United States? In addition, there is great risk that the Afghanis will not commit themselves to our goals hence any further dedication of resources will prove to be little more than an exercise in futility.