Climate Change Denial, Democratic-style
It’s not only me that is going nuts with the lack of urgency regarding climate change. More and more it’s the only thing I think about. And that thinking, as you can imagine, is mostly dread.
I turned on the cable news at 3:00 p.m. last Friday. With a massive permafrost melt threatening the release of catastrophic levels of carbon and methane, with sections of the Antarctic ice sheet calving at an alarming rate, with a pandemic of sand mining threatening sea life and waterways throughout the planet, with shocking concentrations of pollutants threatening the delicate web of sea life even in the remotest depths of the world’s oceans, the lead story on both MSNBC and CNN was this: “Arnold Schwarzenegger will not be returning to The Apprentice.”
It’s no different on the nightly network newscasts, where the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) arbiters of public groupthink—along with their print confreres at The New York Times and Washington Post—have been frantically stoking a Hearst-like yellow journalism plague of lurid tales about the Russian Menace, Jeff Sessions’s two meetings with the Russian ambassador, Trump’s fresh round of Twitter storms about phone tapping, real or imagined, and so on, unto terminal stupor, as the world burns.
Emphasis in original. Many links in original that I don’t show here. More: http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/09/climate-change-denial-democratic-style/
Comments
I worry and dread also. A few more methane burps and...
I am glad I am not a grandmother (yet). Hard topic to bring up with adult children. I do not know what they are thinking, or if they dread as much as me.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
I share your fears.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Climate change is the real man behind the curtain that
everyone is ignoring. Our lives and all life on Earth depend on our full attention and efforts directed at every effort we can think to mitigating our effects on the climate.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Overpopulation, of course, contributes. Some time ago,
I began to suspect that an environment plan is indeed currently in effect, namely, letting a lot of us die worldwide. The most useless eaters, the elderly, the disabled, and the weak being the first to go.
https://www.schillerinstitute.org/food_for_peace/kiss_nssm_jb_1995.html
https://ukiahcommunityblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/james-lee-too-many-u...
I suspect you are correct, but I was rather hoping that
family planning and birth control would take care of this issue. For a while it seemed that it would until the religious crazies decided that such a policy was evil. Better to breed like roaches and let the "surplus" die off in real-life hunger games.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Do you mean in the US or worldwide?
The Duggars and those like them are deliberately trying to breed and grow enough Republicans to outvote us. Those people aside, Americans don't tend to have very many kids per mom. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/05/07/family-size-among-mothers/
The rest of the world may be a different story, though.
Americans have outsourced their anti-family planning
policies to other countries such as those in Africa along with their homophobic attitudes. Human sexuality is a target of religious evangelicals whose worldview is based on faith rather than science. It's one of the things that's killing us and most of life on Earth.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Wherever family planning
is available, people use it. Italy, arguably the most Catholic country in the world, had the lowest birthrate in the world until recently.
In countries where healthcare and contraception are available, we can see discrepancies between rich and poor, or between religious fundamentalist and non-religious groups, using it. I notice how often refugee families in the wars in Syria and Iraq are described as having 6 or more children, and I have to acknowledge it, whereas the more well-off sectors of the Syrian population may have smaller families. So democracy, as well as healthcare availability, is no doubt a factor, having to do with women's rights culturally, as well as legally.
Heh, your spot on there Henry.
My own perverted vision of Armageddon is a giant moon sized spacecraft showing up in orbit with markings on the side that translate to; ORKIN GALACTIC.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Worst kind of lazy journalism
Seems like every newscast just keeps concentrating on "News that we had faxed to us".
Course, in their pursuit of ever higher profits, they've gotten rid of most of their reporters, centralized all the content creation, and made the news content free for the most part, since people aren't interested in anything that's actually going on in the world.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvt-3ecFj5g]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Internet and TV have a lot to do with it.
Both caused people to buy fewer papers, which means less revenue and therefore fewer employees. Yet both media--and radio--are ravenous for news. It you have to get something on the net or airwaves ASAP you are going to use that press release, rather than even think it through for yourself. Especially if staff is so thin and no one is out there actually gathering news.
And international news, fuhgeddaboudit. Major networks and papers used to have news bureaus in foreign nations. Now, they're lucky if they have a stringer. Most of our steady international news is coming from AP, Reuters and UPI. All the better to conform the message!
That's a common theory... I'm not sure I agree
I think it went the other way around. I think they got rid of the entire notion of "investigative journalism" and so their product became worthless. That's why I can't compete against the same pablum spewed out on the internet. It IS the same pablum.
I think they shot themselves in the foot from a business model when they became propaganda sources. Then again, given the distribution of wealth in this country, from a business model standpoint that may be a good move.
Either way, it isn't the availability of the internet that made me forsake legacy news. It's that the legacy news was useless... worse than useless actually... as this story demonstrates.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
I don't think it's either/or, but it doesn't really
matter much. We are where we are, regardless of how we got here. I've called the msm the propaganda arm of the establishment many times, so I agree with you there.
You're certainly right about not either/or
In fact, the two things reinforce each other. Just using my own personal experience, I noticed more and more the news sources were lying to me (failing to provide value added). One at a time I stopped subscribing. This, as you say, reduced their income and assuming they actually had any interest in hiring a journalist (a point I sincerely doubt), they would be harder pressed to do so. This, in turn, would make me even more dismissive of them.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
I'm not surprised or even concerned that they don't report this.
The near-future demise of the human race via shitting in our own kitchen is obviously important and it might be the most important topic that exists right now. It was also the most important topic that existed 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and 30 years ago. It may have taken a back seat to nuclear Armageddon for some of the 40 or so years before that, but has been of the top 2 or 3 most important topics to discus and do something about for the last 70 years.
It is terrifyingly important and it is not new. The news is not, and should not be, our center for knowledge. It is not our guiding light, it is not our moral compass. It's the news; it's what is new. It's the current events of the world; it's the new things that are going on.
The only new thing about climate change is that it's way worse than we thought, and even that's hard to call new because it's been progressively worse than when it was worse than we thought back when we first realized it was worse than we thought, and an exponential worsening is not something most minds can comprehend easily.
We need to have a solution, and THAT would be new. That would be "on the news".
The sky is still blue, and the sun still rises in the east; that is incredibly important and guides the very fabric of our lives, but it is not news.
I like this diary; it's a reminder that we're all both dying and killing our descendents. We need to be reminded of that. I can feel a little better about myself because I bought a house near my job, I walk to work, I very seldom drive if it's not physically possible to walk. Every time I start my engine I die a little and I feel it. It's not 'them' that is killing us, it's not big pharma, or big agriculture, or even big coal anymore, because almost everyone of us has the option to pay a few cents more per kilowatt hour to have clean energy deployed to our homes rather than coal. If you feel like the extra 10-50 dollars a month that might put on your electric bill is more of an issue for you than killing the earth, please do not blame big coal.
Is our problem that it's not on the news? No. Our problem is our own greedy way of life.
Currently reading: How to Create a Mind - Ray Kurzweil
@Aramis Wyler I take some comfort in my
I take some comfort in my reducing my carbon footprint over the last years. I've been driving electric since 2011; have a solar array that runs my whole house and charges the car; converted away from natural gas to all electric in the house. The sheeples have got to realize fossil fuels are obsolete.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020
And as long as rampant income inequality
is with us, there'll be more than enough "sheeple" to work on those dirty industries in order to eat. Our plutocrats count on that too. While people may very well "know" this is wrong and destructive, just what are they supposed to do to eat? Not everyone can afford a solar array nor a hybrid car. And besides, while our cars are a problem they aren't the main one - most of the pollution comes from industry, not from people driving cars. Until we reign in dirty industry nothing will change. Sure, we can all do our part, and as I work mostly from home now I'm just as glad not to be driving my car either, but that isn't the main driver. It's about like blaming the people in So Cal for flushing their toilets too much or watering their lawns while 80% of water use is agriculture for profit.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
"we're dying and killing our descendents"
So true.
I've sent two granddaughters off to college. Before they left, I sat them down and looked them both straight in the eyes and said; I want to apologize for what my generation has left you for a planet. I have tried and tried to change our destructive ways but failed, epically. I'm sorry.
And then the equivalent of mike drop, walked out.
Six more to go.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Your opening statement,
is so close to my feelings.
For me it's the lack of urgency about war and Ashton Carter's project to make nuclear weapons more useable by reducing their yields and thereby only destroying parts of the planet and parts of civilization.
Where is this project now? Was it funded by Congress before the change in administrations? Did I miss it because I'm getting so frightened I can't look?
We have made insane industries very profitable. And we are challenged now by having to find a way to undo this crazy, life-destroying behavior on the part of the stupid, inhuman, people we have empowered.
This is a done deal.
Tactical (as opposed to strategic) nuclear weapons are a reality. The only engineering impediment is production and deployment. Without disarmament these will eventually (probably sooner rather than later) be in the field and as a matter of course used.
Some context would be helpful.
Feeling dread, anger, more dread, frustration, and maybe even surprise are appropriate given the time frame of a person's acquisition of knowledge.
This lead-in sentence suggests to me that this is all rather a new thing.
The "lack of urgency" is part of the norm. The lack of general concern dates back to the beginning of the industrial revolution when biologist noted the changing selective evolutionary pressures acting on moths in England. Global Climate Change is just the most recent iteration (or variant) of anthropomorphic systemic change. Nobody listening today is not novel give that nobody listened in the past. I have spent a lifetime being ignored · · · Welcome to the club!
I wrote a five part Essay Series
that got a lot of love from c99, but hardly anyone else. (See me essays)
Humanity is doomed. Maybe a few will survive, but most won't. As a species, we don't do shit until it's too late, which mitigating Climate Change is just the most recent example. Hey we gotta go buy more shit we don't need ya know. I'm just greatful I'm old and won't have to face the Mad max dystopian world that lies just around the next decade or two, if we survive a nuclear war the dumb fuck (republican knuckle draggers) and their elite assholes (democrats) are trying ferverantly to bring about with all this Russia did it shit.
RR
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
The push back in Academia is Harsh.
The part I fined so very disturbing, and I have been at this for more that four decades, is that so many academic (well educated ?) professionals just refuse to listen. The bullshit, "prove it" chant is so disingenuous with these sorry excuses for the supposed cognoscenti.
Yup, been thinking this for a while
The Republicans just outright deny the validity of climate change or simply don't care. The Democrats acknowledge it's validity and say they care, then to nothing about it. But hey, that's pragmatic, right?
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
The article is grave
All of the other political issues of our time fade in the face of the climate crisis.
If you think about the science too much, it is paralyzing.
This is why I can't get all that worked up about President Trump. I hope and pray for a climate disaster that will wake everyone up, preferably one that doesn't kill too many people, and happens soon enough to take action. Sounds terrible, but we need mother nature to save us.
We have the technology to make a difference. Every week I hear about something new being developed, like this new super duper battery.
https://news.utexas.edu/2017/02/28/goodenough-introduces-new-battery-tec...
Sigh.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
@mhagle Yes, I hope for some
Yes, I hope for some disaster as well. Like Mar-A-Lago sinking into the sea overnight; or maybe the whole southern tip of Florida. I sit here at work and people are talking about all kinds of things that just don't matter when you look at the big picture.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020
Too late
The world, but pretty much America, is so entrenched into their current way of life that they refuse to try and adapt to the rapidly changing world that is due to our addiction of fossil fuels.
Not only that, climate change isn't viewed as an issue. It keeps being put back on the back burner. "We'll get to it eventually." But decade after decade and nothing changes. Of course not, too much money to be made.
People will only notice when it is far too late, and then they will still be somewhat delusional. Don't worry, our government and scientists will just "solve" it or "fix" it. And then when that doesn't work, the anger will come out. Why didn't anyone do something? All the while, the old plutocrats will slowly be dying off from old age, laughing as they are entombed in their golden mausoleums because they won't have to face the dying world.
I'd worry some if
I lived in Miami. Since I don't... pfff. Most of us, including myself, just can't be bothered with climate change. Theres plenty - more than plenty - to worry about without adding that to the list.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Here is a recent article from the FB Resilence page
Much to question, but maybe some good ideas:
http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-03-09/what-would-a-community-owne...
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Food and Farm Co-Ops
are the only way to beat Big Farm. There are some legal challenges, but there is plenty of room on farms to build their own food processing plants.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
And, just when we think we know ...
what is happening the numbers change. The notion that we must nail down all the details before we can say, for sure, what is happening does so very not comport with the reality of scientific progress. With respect to climate change, we know it is bad. Earlier work set boundaries on the parameters, as we refine our understanding the gritty details will only get more gritty. There is no silver lining in this storm unless we get busy creating same.
In the "To Little, (maybe) To Late" department, it looks like the Nebraska Public Power District board of directors have moved to construct more wind farms. Still not a word about decommissioning the coal fired generators.