A race may be just what we need.

Whether its the Space Race, an arms Race, or just Nascar, American's love a competition. Whether we are racing with our worst enemies or just trying to put up more Christmas decorations than our neighbors down the block we do things competitively. So it comes as no surprise when I read Thomas Friedman's article that he is trying to push climate change policy as a matter of keeping up with China. That may just be what we need to do something about it.

American's seem to do our best work when our back is against the wall. When we were faced with the possibility of Russia making it to the moon before us we managed to get there multiple times. Now with no competition we haven't made a moon landing in over 30 years. For some people life will always be us versus them and that unfortunate but I would rather have them competing to be greener than China than competing to see if they can disprove climate change.

I understand that making climate change into an us versus them is not a perfect solution and could lead to problems down the road as it certainly has in the past. And I certainly think that emulating the Cold War can only lead to bad things. However making it a competition between us and China does beat doing nothing ten times out of ten.