As I sit here courtesy of the Aspen Institute Italy at the official Team Mead Remote Roman Blogging Facility at the Parco dei Principi hotel, I can see the dome of St. Peter’s from my balcony beyond the Borghese Gardens overlooking the Old City. Nice work if you can get it, although after almost two weeks on the road I am beginning to pine for the storied and exclusive residential borough of Queens.
Conferences are often dull; this one is better than most. Last night CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider gave us a talk at a lavish dinner at the Gregorian Pontifical University down by the Trevi Fountain; Bill’s analysis was to the point and on the money. A year in office, Obama remains almost as popular as he was on election day. That’s no mean achievement considering the unemployment rate, and it’s a testimony to the hope that so many Americans have invested in this president. However, the road ahead gets harder and the midterms look tough.
But pleasant as the conference and the surroundings are, my main feeling is one of unease. We had another presentation by Richard Muller, one of America’s leading experts on science and politics, and author of the must-read book Physics for Future Presidents. Regular readers of this blog know I’m skeptical that all the noise and activity about global warming is going to do much good; Muller made me feel even worse. Apparently, even in the somewhat unlikely event that all the world’s countries honor the pledges they are making at Copenhagen, the impact on global warming will be something close to zilch. The good news according to Muller (who by the way basically accepts the IPCC take with a few cautions and caveats) is that there’s a non-trivial chance that the global warming problem could be less urgent than advertised.
We will find out; the world’s top political leaders and diplomats are going through a meaningless charade intended to make themselves look good while leaving the problem to sort itself out.
More and more I wonder if our experts and political classes are serious about anything. Whether it’s the U.S. budget deficit, the looming crisis in health care, the global economic imbalance between surplus and deficit countries, the coming crisis with Iran, or the way that current U.S. policy systematically sacrifices the interests of youth to protect the status quo and the interests of the old, I see a lot of talk and handwringing, but little if any real movement.
Here on a beautiful day in the Eternal City it’s hard to get too worked up about the state of the world. As one Visigoth said to a colleague, “Rome was not burned in a day.”
But we are living in a time of revolutionary social and economic change and we are governed by a generation of time-serving mediocrities. This is not a good combination and it’s one that this blog will be paying more attention to going forward.
However, checking my watch I see it’s time for the Aspen Institute lunch here at the Parco dei Principi; if past meals here are any indication, this is an event not to be missed. For now, blogging on the growing world crisis must come to an end.