Mike Brown: All those nations should solve real problems

I read the Bee every day, and I try to read the whole paper. In the Dec. 13 Bee, there was a front-page story (“Work at arms plants leaves legacy of disease, death and patriotism,” Page 1A) about the tens of thousands of workers injured or killed by nuclear research in the years during and after World War II. In the Earthweek section I read that radiation from Japan’s 2011 nuclear meltdown has been detected from Alaska to California. The very next story in this section discusses the glacier melting in Greenland is similar to what happened 8,500 years ago (Note: not too many coal-fired power plants back then).

In the very same section, there is a story about how global worldwide carbon emissions have nearly leveled off. Finally, there is a full-page article on 15A discussing the 195 nation Paris accord limiting carbon emissions. Battling climate change is a central element of Obama’s legacy. The Paris agreement, if implemented, won’t actually stop global warming. However, it will increase use of, and I’m not kidding, nuclear power.

If only the 195 nations spent half as much time trying to prevent the slaughter of innocents caused by Muslim extremists, maybe they could solve an actual problem – not a theoretical one.

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Mike Brown: All those nations should solve real problems."