Priorities

We already know that conservative priorities - at least those espoused by the current gang of thieves - are, at best, misplaced. The latest word on investment to mitigate global warming which all but the GOP faithful acknowledge is going to be a huge problem within the next 25 to 100 years, provides the latest illustration.

In the United States, annual federal spending for all energy research and development — not just the research aimed at climate-friendly technologies — is less than half what it was a quarter-century ago. It has sunk to $3 billion a year in the current budget from an inflation-adjusted peak of $7.7 billion in 1979, according to several different studies.

[snip]

President Bush has sought an increase to $4.2 billion for 2007, but that would still be a small fraction of what most climate and energy experts say would be needed.

Federal spending on medical research, by contrast, has nearly quadrupled, to $28 billion annually, since 1979. Military research has increased 260 percent, and at more than $75 billion a year is 20 times the amount spent on energy research.

Emphasis is mine.

Our grandchildren will be living in a world warmer, with more violent weather; they'll be starving from the loss of cropland, many in refugee camps having been driven out of coastal areas by rising sea levels. But damn it, they'll have the best weapons money can buy.