The story of the earth's illness is well known-man made factories, cars, power plants and the like release excessive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, trap solar heat and cause the delicate balance that sustains life on this planet to be offset. Symptoms include larger storms, increasing temperatures and shrinking polar ice caps, which threaten to raise the sea level around the globe. The dangers of global climate change are increasing exponentially.Meanwhile, in Washington, President George W. Bush and the GOP have paid little to no attention to the problem, preferring instead to either address climate change in a limited manner or perpetuate rumors that global warming is a myth.

Of all the Republican presidential candidates, none, save John McCain, have recognized that climate change exists. Even McCain stops at recognition, failing to put forth a plan for action as every Democratic candidate has done. Basically, America faces a situation in which we are approaching a crisis that our leadership fails to recognize.

Remind you of anything?

As you might remember from the fifth Harry Potter novel, a character named Cornelius Fudge made a surprisingly similar mistake. Fudge, the minister of magic, spent most of the book denying that Lord Voldemort had come to power.

Why did Fudge deny the Dark Lord's return despite the overwhelming evidence of his presence? If Voldemort returns, Fudge must fight him because Fudge is responsible for protecting the magical community. A government is responsible for looking after the welfare of its citizens. Likewise, the U.S. government is responsible for protecting its citizens against the threat of climate change.

The Bush Administration has ignored evidence of climate change because acknowledging the problem means that it would be held responsible for solving it. Addressing global warming requires shifting America's sources of energy away from the oil industry, a business in which Bush has personal interest (Halliburton).

Republicans have frequently argued that shifting our energy resources is bad for America because it would hurt the economy. However, as illustrated in Brandeis' screening of The 11th Hour last week, this argument is based on faulty logic, mistakenly equating the economy with human well-being. The economy is not an end in itself, it is rather a means by which we achieve wellness.

Therefore, the primary responsibility of the government is the welfare of its people, not the economy, and the condition of the planet is part of that welfare.

A decade ago, global warming was viewed as a treat to the arctic glaciers. But since then, it has become increasingly clearer that climate change is not a problem only for polar bears: It's a problem for people.

If glacial melting continues, rising sea levels could begin to submerge costal lowlands like Florida. America has already had a taste of the potential human disaster caused by flooding with Katrina, a storm which is part of a trend in growing storm size and power in recent years. Scientists have attributed this trend to the changing global climate. The threat is real, but the response is absent.

Though it might be unfortunate that our political leaders are making the same mistakes as a fictional character in Harry Potter, their failure leaves Americans with two options: Either we change our leadership, or we take matters into our own hands. I recommend both.

There are a thousand and one things individuals can do to change the way they use energy. However, the major systematic changes in America, replacing coal burning power plants with renewable sources of energy and enacting a carbon emissions tax to name a few, can only come from our leadership. Fortunately for Americans, November approaches.