President Obama had a realism moment last week when he responded, off-script, to a question posed to him at a meeting with the Business Roundtable in Washington. In response to a challenge to costly carbon-dioxide (CO2) regulation by Weyerhaeuser President Daniel Fulton, Obama opined:
I’m not somebody who — I’ve never bought into these Malthusian, woe, Chicken Little, the earth is falling — I tend to be pretty optimistic. I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t pretty optimistic. But I think this is–the science is overwhelming. This is a real problem. It will have severe economic consequences, as well as political and national security and environmental consequences.
Well, here is a little secret that should be brought out in the open. …