The Sierra Club’s Carl Pope poses the question. “Let’s say you’re canoeing down the river and it forks to the right and left. As you look one way,” he says, “you see a jarring set of rapids that travels down a treacherous route, with whitecaps that crash against the jagged rocks. However, when you look in the other direction, you see a smooth current, clear sailing, and none of the dangers found with traveling in the other direction.”
Which way do you go?
After all of the hands went up for the less rigorous route, Pope pulled a surprise. “The problem,” he said, “is that water follows gravity. The more dangerous route, while difficult, gets you to the safety. The smooth route to the right, which may appear safe at first, gets you to a waterfall. By the time you’ve discovered your error, it’s too late and you’re finished.”
In that short parable, Carl Pope underlined his concerns about the upcoming Climate Conference in Copenhagen, which will take place for two weeks in December. As the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, many hope that the Copenhagen process becomes the next framework to decrease the realities of global warming. However, as Pope looks at the process, he sees it as a global canoe trip down the smooth side of the fork, the one which leads to a lethal waterfall. Continue reading
We may have lost temporarily a member, but we have gained an Ambassador. Our friend Jeff Bleich is the second member of The Luncheon Society to join the Ambassadorial ranks. Previously Jeff was the Special Counsel to the President in the Obama Administration. In private practice, Jeff was a litigation partner in the San Francisco office of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, and has been recognized for the past 7 years as one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal. 
Does overheated rhetoric invite and incite dangerous behavior? Is there a causal relationship between the killing of Dr. George Tiller and the rhetoric that originated from the partisan talk-television prior to his death? 
The Luncheon Society 