The Art of Being Informed
In the midst of watching daytime television last friday (ahh, a relaxing yet informative day off), a commercial about the polar bear crisis and melting ice caps in the north, I realized another wonderful avenue of domestication: volunteering. I offer you my opinion on the importance of the World Wildlife Fund and the struggle to green our country from an article I wrote for Advanced Feature Writing at Rowan University:
Until a few days ago, I thought “WWF” stood for the World Wrestling Federation. Turns out I missed the boat on that name change several years ago when the World Wrestling Federation had to change its name to World Wrestling Entertainment after another organization demanded they find a different acronym. WWF was taken…
…Taken by the World Wildlife Fund, the organization raising awareness of environmental issues, mainly habitat protection and slowing the freight train of global warming. I was in the middle of watching a mind-numbing daytime television show when actress Sharon Lawrence shot me with two minutes of guilt in a commercial for the real WWF.
Lawrence is best known for her role on NYPD Blue, with a few stints here and there on Desperate Housewives and Monk, but is showing face in honor of “one of the most magnificent animals on the planet,” as she puts it. Polar bears.
In the past several decades, celebrities like Lawrence have learned to channel their popularity towards the greater good, raising awareness for civil rights, AIDS, Parkinson’s, eating disorders, and now global warming.
But the concerns for global warming are nothing new. As television viewers, we’ve heard what the logging industry is doing to wildlife habitats. As consumers, we know to buy organic and recycled paper goods whenever possible. So what’s the hold-up in protecting our earth?
Maybe the problem lies in the hands of our politicians. In today’s ever-tense primary race for official party nominations, neither McCain nor Huckabee dwell on environmental issues in the Republican race, the same true for Clinton or Obama.
The only reason anyone today really cares about sustainable energy is because the shortage on oil is soon going to be a crisis and soon going to be drained out. This leaves the oil companies in desperate need to find alternative fueling sources to prevent losing their multi-billion dollar businesses, but just like Sharon Lawrence asks—what about the polar bears?
And what about Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party candidate for the 2008 Presidential Election? Clearly she’s not making enough noise, at least not in my neck of the woods, so let’s take a closer look at our potential 44th president:
| 2008Presidential Candidate | Most Prominent Environmental Platform | Grade |
|
Mike Huckabee (R) |
|
C |
|
Barack Obama (D) |
|
A- |
|
Hillary Clinton (D) |
|
A |
|
John McCain (R) |
D |
Information provided by ontheissues.org
Can we rely on platforms and charts when presidential candidates are face-to-face with endangered species? That depends on who you’re talking about. Let’s start with Mike Huckabee. His intentions are credible and his view on protecting the earth is at the same level of a 5th grade boy scout: leave the earth better than you found it. So, while I know he cares, he has not proven himself as a proponent of environmental issues, so for that, he earns a C.
Next, we’ll take a look at Barack Obama. Here’s his biggest holdback: he only talks about environmental issues when someone else raises them. I do believe he cares about the environment and green technologies, but like the oil companies, only a drastic shortage and public pressure seems to be what’s lighting his fire. Obama earns an A-, because despite his shortcomings, the public will pressure him into higher standards, and he will take the bait.
Hilary Clinton is the winner of this competition. She is tying together economics and green issues, planning to devote $5 billion dollars towards brand new jobs which will not only stimulate our economy, but get it on track for a greener future. For this line-blurring strategy, Clinton earns an A, and a serious eyebrow raise to Sen. McCain’s backwards disconnect of economic and environmental issues.
And while I’m sure McCain will keep American soil protected, he’ll probably kill enough people that we won’t have to worry about the planet’s condition in 100 years. If he had run for election in almost any race other than the upcoming 2008 election (assuming he is voted the Republican Presidential Nominee), his military valor would have won over voters, but in the wake of the Iraq War, Americans are growing more concerned with what is going on in our own nation, not abroad. We don’t want the United States to go down in history as a leading contributor to the escalation of global warming. McCain earns a D.
Presidential campaigners should be more like Sharon Lawrence, backing the work of the WWF so that the polar bears don’t drown in search of food. Or, more like Hillary Clinton who understands that we have no future if we allow global warming to continue escalating at today’s alarming rate. I’m sure the public would feel more passionate if we were the ones drowning in search of food. Maybe one day we’ll have our chance.
The cited commercial for WWF with Sharon Lawrence:
