Michael Buck sees the world through the eyes of a forester on a tropical island in the Pacific. As the director of Hawaii’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife, he had to make tough decisions in a political atmosphere that was tough and laden with competing values.

There he dealt with hugely expanding problems with evasive species, development, clashes between environmental values and good forestry practices and rapidly disappearing biodiversity. I talked with him in the early 1990s when I did a report for the University of Hawaii's EastWest Center on Hawaii's rain forests called “Mending Fences."

That’s why he’s skeptical the world is going to reach an agreement to address the greatest challenge facing the human race, perhaps in history. He was the opening speaker in Tuesday’s Frank Church Conference on Public Affairs at Boise State University, “The Global Environment from Kyoto to Copenhagen.”

He laid out the evidence of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal," and “most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations."

To him the preponderance of the data, the science is clear but he believes many in the political process are not willing to accept it. He considers decision-making a triangle of politics, values and science.

“They’ve allowed their values and their politics to totally overwhelm the science,” he said.

He can understand why people in places where climate change has not had much affect on their life are not ready to act.

“At what point will people sacrifice some part of their quality of life for the future?” he asked. “I’m not optimistic about that.”

But he aimed his message most to the students in the room. They he said will suffer the effects of climate change no matter how fast we act. Their lives will see whether the world’s society can adapt to the changes or fall apart.

“It’s not going to affect my life much, it’s your life that will be affected,” Buck said.

But he said even as he doesn’t have faith the current political system will react now, he has faith in people over politics.

“Living on islands you take for granted limits,” said Buck, now with the National Association of Foresters. “We all live on an island. We have no place to go.”