Recently the media reported a drop in the fourth quarter GNP and referred to a 15 percent reduction in defense spending as a primary cause. The Defense Department quickly jumped on the report to lobby for continued high levels of spending. What the media failed to report was the effects of Midwestern summer droughts on corn and soybean production and the cataclysmic devastation caused in late October by Hurricane Sandy.

Our government admits it does not know how to calculate the disruptions in commerce and production caused by the hurricane; so it left it out of its analysis. Isn't that a pitiful state of affairs? Also, left out was who will pay for the $60 billion in emergency funds for victims of this storm.

Our governments, local, state, and federal are avoiding the dangers from climate change. Instead, it's business as usual - more defense spending; more grants for biotech; and more effort to build police stations. The production of greenhouse gases continue to increase and environmental disasters happen more frequently.

As long as you and I pay the bills for climate damage and as long as the oil and coal industries avoid their responsibility, our government will continue with its ignorant excuses for not taking real and vigorous action to protect our lives and property.