A 9/30/l8 Washington Post article revealed that the Trump Administration, in a 500-page environmental impact statement said: “On its current course, the planet will warm a disastrous 7 degrees by [2100].” This ensures a major earth catastrophe. But, incredibly, this wasn’t an effort to stop this disaster; “Just the opposite: The analysis assumes the planet’s fate is already sealed;” and therefore we don’t need to do anything to prevent it from happening!!! All os this was in a statement by the National Highway Traffic Administration Safety Administration – and – “was written to justify President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze federal fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks built after 2020.” Because…the resulting greenhouse gases would “add just a very small drop to a very big bucket!!!’
We are sinking deeper into the rabbit hole of “Alice in Wonderland. Things might have been different if we had other examples of defeatism: in 1940, with the Nazis winning WWII decisively, with most hope lost, Winston Churchill should have faced this reality and surrendered; the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, having just been decisively destroyed, 10-3, by the best hockey team in the world, should have admitted the Russians would easily beat them again; the pathetic American “army” at Valley Forge should have given up and sought warmth ay home, knowing the world’s #1 power would easily defeat them; we should have admitted it would be too difficult to put a man on the moon, and save the money; the 1950’s-1960’s civil rights workers should have admitted their cause was hopeless in the face of violent resistance, and accepted their lot as second class citizens; all of our brave Medal of Honor winners should have stayed safe in their foxholes……………Given this “logic” by the Trump Administration, it is now imperative that we rewrite ‘The Star Spangled Banner.” At the very least, the line “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” will need to be changed to drop “And the home of the brave?” In addition to greed and willful stupidity, climate denial forces cab now add cowardice.
Naomi Klein, in “No is Not Enough,” raised another interesting angle on climate change denial: “What I found is that when hard-core conservatives deny climate change, they are not just protecting the trillions in wealth that are threatened by climate action. They are also defending something even more precious to them: an entire ideological project – neoliberalism – which holds that the market is always right, regulation is always wrong, private is good and public is bad, and taxes that support public services are the worst of all.”
As Klein relates, neoliberalism that “since the 1990’s has been the reigning ideology of the world’s elites,” and “its strictest and most dogmatic adherents remain where the movement started: on the U.S. right.” They believe “governments exist in order to create the optimal conditions for private interests to maximize their profits and wealth.” {for a different perspective on this, see the Constitution’s Preamble’s “promote the general Welfare.”] Following the “trickle down” theory, some benefits will reach lesser people, but if that doesn’t happen it’s because of their own failings! The primary neoliberal tools are the familiar: privatizing of the public sphere {check how wonderful this worked out in Putin’s Russia!], deregulation [see crash of 2008 for “proof” how good this is!], tax cuts for the rich {see exploding U.S. national debt after Reagan-Bush II tax cuts, added to by Trump cuts], corporate friendly trade deals {see secret corp-friendly courts].
Knowing what Klein has identified [as have many others], now the Trump strategy makes sense. Government exists to maximize corporate profits – therefore regulations which cut profits [mileage requirements] must end; following any global warming reducing efforts would also cut corporate profits – therefore we don’t do that.
In neoliberal economics – damage to the earth and people’s health and livelihood is “collateral damage.” Corporate profits must be protected at all costs – even the destruction of the earth itself. By some coincidence, the destruction of the earth is also another feature of the American right wing – the religious side. All the “moral” people who have been “born again,” or follow strict Biblical literalism tenets will be saved – so dying is part of their guaranteed future in heaven. Those people who deny the “truth” of these beliefs deserve to die, so global warming catastrophe is their just fate.
Those of you who have such a difficult time understanding the “why” of global warming denial now have your answer. As you reflect back on climate warming denial since Exxon Mobil”s own scientists told them global warming was happening in the 1970’s – now you can see the “why.” It was/is mostly about greed, with fundamentalist religious support added. The oil millionaires/billionaires weren’t rich enough. If need be, Jane Mayer’s splendid “Dark Money” exposes a primary source of climate change denial money and influence – the infamous Koch brothers and their vast network of accomplices. Not content with global warming denial, the elderly Koch brothers are determined to remake America into a theocratic oligarchy. When that is accomplished, public information attempts like this web site will not exist. No more “fake news” from anybody raising any questions about anything that threatens corporate profits. The top 1% owns the U.S. Congress, they are about to own the U.S. Supreme Court.
The final changes in the First Amendment will have been made. Not only will corporate “persons” have the right to bribe whatever “government” still exists [see “Citizens United” ruling], they’ll have the right not to have their profits threatened by any “fake news” criticism of their methods. Their “speech” will be privileged and protected, yours will be restricted, maybe even banned. Anti-corporate street demonstrations will, of course, either be restricted to Bush II type “free speech zones” totally out of sight, or be banned as “terrorist” demonstrations.
Some of you might be inclined to say “hysteria run amuck;” “he’s got no right to link all these things together,” etc. If so, I ask you to look at the pattern of rhetoric, laws, intent from the American Right since l98l. Who benefitted from the Reagan-Bush II tax cuts? Who benefitted from the anti-labor union war [see declining wages since1973]? Who benefitted from the infamous “Citizens United Supreme Court ruling [see state efforts to restrict corporate bribery}? Who benefits from “de-regulation” [see 2008 crash, grandma dying from bad peanut butter]? Who benefits from “privatization” of U.S. freeways, bridges, parking meters, prisons? Who benefits from the prolonged right wing attack on government itself {see public opinion changes in last 30 years]? Who has benefitted from “globalization” [see world-wide middle class stress in advanced nations, see explosive corporate profit growth]?
One more challenge: where do you get your information? If you have a hostile reaction to this post, why? What have you been told is the “truth?” Are you repeatedly listening to the well-documented right wing “echo chamber” of repeated stories and misinformation: Fox TV, right wing talk radio, some “Christian radio, crazy internet blogs? The kind of story that led a listener to show up at a NYC pizza store looking for Hilary”s “prostitution ring” with his gun? Or the infamous “Shirley Sherrod story;” a woman was taped talking with an audience, the tape then edited to have her say 180 degrees opposite of what she did say – got her fired. Or the infamous Terri Schaivo mess – a brain-dead woman [which an autopsy proved her to have been for some time] became the center of an attempt to “keep her alive,” when that was impossible.
Consider Pew Research Center reports discussed in Mark Bauerlein’s “The Dumbest Generation.” Bauerlein, a college English professor, relates how the “cyberculture” “is turning us into a society of Know-Nothings.” Bauerlein describes experiences he’s had, like 22% of college seniors recognize a line from the Gettysburg Address, and 99% of them identified Beavis and Butt-Head. Bauerlein mentions 6 other books written about various aspects of “The Age of American Unreason.” In 1991, Steve Allen wrote “Dumbth” – relating such items as a 1982 poll found 25% of American high school students felt the 1969 moon landing was a faked propaganda stunt; 26% of graduates couldn’t identify Mexico as bordering America; 24% of Americans believed Delaware was a city. In 1981-82, Proctor & Gamble employees and their children were harassed by religious zealots who believed a rumor that the company logo was an indication of a connection with Satan worship.
One of my favorite “tribal” stories is this: a famous Canadian climate change expert has just finished her presentation on global warming. A woman from the audience approaches her and says this: “It all seems so logical. I wish I could support you, but i can’t, because that would mean I’d agree with Al Gore.”
When America is in the grip of this kind of “thinking,” we’re obviously in big trouble. If we determine what we believe on the basis of who said it, we’re in big trouble. If Newton had been a Democrat, does this mean Republicans can’t accept the theory of gravity? If Galileo had been a Republican, does this mean Democrats can’t accept the sun is the center of our universe? We adults send our children to school to learn how to reason – and we refuse to practice what we demand our children learn. Would you bet if your odds were 95% favorable? Probably. The odds on climate change deniers are about 5-95% against, with more evidence discovered every day. Your grandchildren are going to ask you why you not only did nothing, but even worse supported cynical politicians and corrupt businessmen who destroyed the earth.
With Justice For All 