The vanishing wetlands provide a valuable ecological service by absorbing the powerful leading edge of hurricanes and limiting the flooding potential of storm surges. Anyone can talk about courage, resolve, values, leadership, etc., but I’d much rather have the minutiae of environmental politics and wetlands restoration any day of the week. Read more about the wonky specifics of Obama’s environmental policy.

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Okay, you say he’s not the Vice President. I say, yet. It’s good news to me. Much ado has been made in the direction of Sen. Obama’s experience. And while I don’t think the Senator quite has the inner propeller beanie that his opponents have painted him with, I myself question his ability. But Biden comes with mad experience. As a sixth term Senator - that’s 34 in people years - he can assuage a lot of those concerns. Also as Chair of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, that’s just one more thorn he pulls from the Obama camp’s side.

Weighing in with a lifetime score of 84-percent from the The League of Conservation Voters, he shows real environmental cred. Not surprising, during his 2008 presidential run, he had this to say at a rally in South Carolina:

“If I could wave a wand, and the Lord said I could solve one problem, I would solve the energy crisis. That’s the single most consequential problem we can solve. It’s what you have to do to get greenhouse gases under control.”

Along with energy security, he’s been a strong voice on how our own accountability factors into the climate crisis. Instead of fairytale solutions, he calls upon us to clean up our own mess:

“I personally believe that the single most important step we can take to resume a leadership role in international climate-change efforts would be to make real progress toward a domestic emissions-reduction regime. For too long we have abdicated the responsibility to reduce our own emissions, the largest single source of the problem we face today. We have the world’s largest economy, with the highest per-capita emissions. Rather than leading by example, we have retreated from international negotiations.” He said before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

And before you whip out your Al Gore-shapped measuring stick, take a longer look at his scorecard:

• Cosponsor of the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, penned both by Sen. Boxer and Sen. Sanders.
• Calls for raising the fuel-economy standard to 40 mpg by 2017.
• Opposes subsidizing technology and practices that would only worsen global warming.
• Introduced a bill to promote the use of CFLs, unlike that other Senator.
• Active supporter of the U.S. participating in the U.N. climate negotiations.

Is he the absolute greenist candidate Obama could have picked - maybe, maybe not. But I bet he can spell potato(e).

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Image source: Joe Biden’s Senate website

On a more uplifting note than the one of balance-teetering dismay I struck the other day with a post – CNN’s Glenn Beck and Other Doubters Need More Faith – here’s why I think the green side of mankind may be moving in a good direction.

It cheers me to realize that “green” is a common term these days. Sure, it is arguably over- and mis-used as it’s become a buzz word for marketers. But we’ll get past that, around it, through it…whatever.

Walking on the bright side of life for a bit, I think the fact that environmentalism, global warming, recycling, alternative energies and so on are in the broader public discussion at all shows that the long-timers who’ve been making this argument for decades have gained some ground for us all.

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I’m not sure what it is about these ads that have captured the nation’s imagination; John McCain has his own version of it, and, of course, it inspired scores of parodies on YouTube and among late-night talk show comedians.

Still, I wonder if the candidates will get around to making one of these ads about the environment.

It’d be really easy to do, actually. All you need is a ringing phone…and no one to answer it.

That’s because the environment has somehow become a non-issue during this campaign season. All three candidates have fairly progressive views when it comes to addressing climate change, and they all tout the benefits of weening ourselves off foreign oil, so we’ve basically been told by the media that there’s nothing more to discuss on the topic.

The only problem is that voters WANT to discuss it.

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