The most important issue is...

Sometimes I'm glad I'm 42 years old.

On days when I am stiff and sore, can't swing the golf club the way I want to and have memory lapses I'm not so glad. But when I think of what the world is like now and what the world is going to be like in 40 years, I realize that I have had the privilege to live a good part of my life before too much went wrong...before things got totally out of control.

Many people have seen the movie "An Inconvenient Truth." Many of those who saw it walked away saying they would try to do the little things in their life that might make a difference when it comes to global warming. I know I did. Some people, however, came out with a more pessimistic viewpoint - that it's already too late to do anything. If you read the article through the link below (the video is even more stark), you can understand why they feel that way.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18039460/.

It may indeed be too late to stop nearly catastrophic change. But there's still a difference between nearly catastrophic change and catastrophic change.

Despite the immediacy of the war in Iraq, there is no greater issue facing this country (and the world) than global warming. Every day that goes by without starting the extremely painful measures that will curb greenhouse gas emissions is a day that brings us closer to our own self-caused destruction. I can't make it any clearer than that.

Every time a presidential candidate asks for questions from the press or the audience, the first question should be:

"What measures are you prepared to take to limit the build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere and how are you going to convince the American people and the world that these painful measures are absolutely essential?"

It's probably already too late for the polar bears and seals mentioned in the article above. But the answer to that question will determine whether it's also too late for us.