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I think what galls me the most about the right's refusal to adknowledge the threat of climate change is the manner in which they have been able to frame the debate as a fight over frivilous environmental nostalgia -- as if the only reason to demand agressive environmental regulation is out of some fetishistic love of snowy owls. Of course, we should all be in awe of nature's magnificance, but we should also understand that good environmental policy is good economic policy. Preventing global warming is not about saving animals, it's about saving people.
If there is one thing we should understand its that ecological disaster is only a "disaster" from a human perspective. Nature is patient and will adapt to anything that humans can do to it. Even in the worst case scenario, ecosystems will reform around new climates and slowly, eventually, inevitably balance will be restored to the system.
Of course, whether or not our small and ephemeral culture would survive -- that's the cause worth fighting for.
