As time passes, and we continue to grow and develop as a species, despite our many achievements, be they in the arts or architecture or flight, one accomplishment will remain the most important in human history no matter what occurs in the years ahead. We may, in the future, cure Cancer and AIDS, put a person on Mars, or even find a way to curb the planet’s food crises. But despite all of these things, mankind’s greatest achievement is, and will always be, the photograph.

A single image, captured in time, for all time.

Why, you ask, do I believe the photograph to be of such importance? Because, in the century ahead, photographs, along with film, will be all that will remain of many of this world’s inhabitants. Fifty years from now school children may very well only know what a Polar Bear looks like because of photographs. The same can be said of numerous other species that are widely known. Of course, species are rendered extinct on a weekly basis as it is, but most of them aren’t all that familiar to us – certainly not familiar enough to be glorified in the pages of future textbooks.

One wonders what questions the children of the future will ask as to why the Polar Bear did not survive? One wonders what responses will be provided by those children’s teachers?

There, frozen in time, the image of that majestic Arctic bear will remain for generations to gaze upon, as if a thing of legend, almost other-worldly, the inhabitant of a time long since past. And as time passes, so too will the reason for its destruction be forgotten.

Here we find ourselves, on the verge of a photograph, looking to those in positions of responsibility to make the right choices. And with such a profound issue presented them, you need not guess at how they intend to respond…

“The state Legislature is looking to hire a few good polar bear scientists. The conclusions have already been agreed upon — researchers just have to fill in the science part.

A $2 million program funded with little debate by the Legislature last month calls for using state money to fund an “academic based” conference that highlights contrarian scientific research on global warming. Legislators hope to undermine the public perception of a widespread consensus among polar bear researchers that warming global temperatures and melting Arctic ice threaten the polar bears’ survival.

Republican legislative leaders say a federal decision to declare the polar bears “threatened” by climate change would have troubling effects on Arctic oil development and the state’s economic future.

Last week a federal judge ordered the Bush administration to release its already-tardy decision under the Endangered Species Act by May 15. By law, such a decision must be based strictly on science, not on possible economic consequences.

Legislative leaders said they are frustrated that researchers skeptical of the doomsday scenario get marginalized as crackpots or industry shills by the media and scientific agencies.

“We want to have the money to hire scientists to answer the Interior (Department) scientists,” House Speaker John Harris, R-Valdez, said last week.

The $2 million is also to be used for a national public relations campaign to promote the findings of the conference.

Critics say it’s a waste of state money because all the hard scientific research points in the other direction.

“This truly is the conference to nowhere,” said University of Alaska researcher Rick Steiner, who has pressed the Palin administration unsuccessfully for five months to release any scientific backup for its position opposing the federal polar bear listing.

The time for debate is over, especially when the opposition is using “junk science,” said Melanie Duchin with Greenpeace in Alaska. “This is clearly the same sort of ‘question, deny and delay’ tactic used by Exxon Mobil and the Bush administration to confuse the public over the severity of global warming and stall any meaningful action to deal with the problem.”

There are numerous things to touch on this morning. Here are some of the stories that I have been following…

Chavez Says He Will Step Down At End Of Term

After last week’s defeat of proposed constitutional reforms, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said that he will step down when is term is up in 2013. Chavez has vowed to keep fighting to have the reforms passed, requiring a petition of 15% of voters to secure the possibility of a new referendum.

Vancouver Airport Reforms Announced

The Vancouver International Airport will spend $1.4 million dollars a year to “improve service for international travelers”. The measures include the following…

Had such measures already been in place, Robert Dziekanski would still be alive today.

Canada Fourth Worst In Climate Change Performance

Based on emissions produced over the last year, climate change policies, and emission level reduction efforts, Canada has ranked fourth to last in the world behind Australia, the United States, and Saudi Arabia.

Canada is currently rated 53rd out of 56 countries, a drop from 51st place a year ago. Well done, Mr. Harper.

$1 Billion Worth Of Military Equipment Missing In Iraq

According to CBS News…

“Tractor trailers, tank recovery vehicles, crates of machine guns and rocket propelled grenades are just a sampling of more than $1 billion in unaccounted for military equipment and services provided to the Iraqi security forces, according to a new report issued today by the Pentagon Inspector General and obtained exclusively by the CBS News investigative unit. Auditors for the Inspector General reviewed equipment contracts totaling $643 million but could only find an audit trail for $83 million.

The report details a massive failure in government procurement revealing little accountability for the billions of dollars spent purchasing military hardware for the Iraqi security forces. For example, according to the report, the military could not account for 12,712 out of 13,508 weapons, including pistols, assault rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers and machine guns.”

I’d say something witty, but it depressingly doesn’t come as a surprise.

For the first time in Nobel history, the coveted Peace Prize has been awarded for environmental activism. It was jointly awarded to former US Vice President Al Gore and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Gore, in a brief press conference after receiving the news, said that he would donate his half of the $1.5 million dollar prize to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

While it is fantastic that this issue has received such attention by way of the world’s most prestigious award, on the US political front, The Nation’s John Nichols makes some very valid points about Gore’s participation in the upcoming Presidential election…

“…the inconvenient truth is that never has the man who might yet be president needed to more seriously consider his personal legacy–not to mention the small matter of his potential to make the world anew–than now.

There is, after all, the matter of the open space at the end of what is now the most remarkable resume of anyone seeking – or considering seeking – the presidency.

Let’s review.

This is how Al Gore’s resumé reads as of this morning:

Son of a great senator.

Harvard graduate, with honors.

Vietnam veteran.

Award-winning investigative journalist.

Congressman.

Senator.

Vice President.

Winner of the popular vote for President of the United States.

Best-selling author.

Environmental activist.

Academy Award winner.

And, now, Nobel Peace Prize winner–he shares the prize with the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change–for “their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about manmade climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”

As resumés go, that is one for the top of the pile.

But it begs the question: Shouldn’t a man who has gotten this far be thinking about how to finish the journey?

And isn’t the last stop the Oval Office?

To think that Gore is not pondering these questions today would be absurd.”

I whole-heartedly agree. I firmly believe that Mr. Gore has a responsibility to run, especially after this latest triumph. Given the state of affairs in the United States, it seems insane to me that he wouldn’t; that he would leave the fate of the nation to what I consider lesser candidates – perhaps with the exception of Dennis Kucinich, who has really no chance of winning the Democratic nomination anyway.

If ever there was as time for an individual like Al Gore to run, it’s now. Beyond what he could do environmentally as President, given that the United States is one of the world’s foremost polluters, his impact on the disaster in Iraq, not to mention numerous domestic failures, would be, I believe, significantly positive.

There is no question that whomever inherits the mess left by the Bush administration will have their hands full, not to mention be left in the proverbial hot seat because of it, but I think that if anyone can truly handle that challenge, it’s Al Gore.

I don’t have a lot of time to spare this morning, but wanted to quickly comment on a story on the BBC’s front page about climate change.

In the article, the BBC reports that the IPCC has concluded that climate change has ‘very likely’ been caused by humans – which means that they’re 90% certain that global warming can be attributed to human activities.

What I want to know is, who, in their right mind, thinks that the drastic changes in climate and weather over the last 20 years haven’t been the result of human activities?

I think that the cover of last week’s Georgia Straight here in town summed it up rather well.