Paul Krugman’s 7/2/12 column in the NY Times was about nations ignoring obvious disasters in favor of illusion. He was writing about the possible financial collapse of Europe, but he could have been describing the global response to climate change. “The point is that the prospect of disaster, no matter how obvious, is no guarantee that nations will do what it takes to avoid that disaster.” Apparently, there have been optimistic assessments for Europe of late which hinge, not on the likely success of the current austerity strategy—which has been failing for the past two years—but on the increased awareness that the break up of the euro would be a global catastrophe, and the presumption that European leaders will therefore do what they must to save the situation. Such arguments made Krugman think of Norman Angell, who published “The Great Illusion” in 1910, arguing that war was obsolete because territorial acquisition was no longer the road to wealth and because the”passions of patriotism” were on the wane. Angell’s facts were correct but, obviously, not his assumption that nations act rationally. Reading recent international bank reports, Krugman writes, “is to feel that you’ve entered an alternative universe, one in which neither the lessons of history nor the laws of arithmetic apply.”

Our presidential election is fast approaching, and so far neither Romney nor Obama have taken up the subject of climate change. The sky really is falling, but our leaders are behaving like ostriches. It really does feel like an alternative universe.