I have been engaged recently in a discussion of Global Climate Change. It seems that the conservatives in this country do not believe that our climate is changing and if it is, man has nothing to do with it. Before I can discuss the situation I need to digress and describe a hypothesis that I have long held. Americans have been so politically polarized over the last 30 years that we can no longer discuss issues, instead we develop a strawman or bogeyman for each idea. Once the bogeyman has been created both sides begin to debate the merits of the bogeyman not the original idea. Some examples: we no longer debate the affordability of our previous healthcare system or lack of plan; instead the conservatives have created the bogeyman Obama Care. Liberals have responded with the bogeyman you bastards hate the poor! With these two bogeymen in place we no longer debate, we argue, we insult the other persons bogeyman and no legitimate discussion results. There are many more examples. Progressives scream about the bogeyman of Citizens United and its related sub issues Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and multiple other extremely wealthy contributors who want to preserve what they think is the American way. There is no debate on the merits of the issue only on the evilness of the bogeymen involved. Conservatives fear the loss of their concept of the American way and attack the bogeyman of unregistered voters, undocumented aliens, and felons voting. It seems that every major issue today is accompanied with its intractable bogeyman for each issue. The issue of global climate change could not be more specific. Liberals believe the world, as we know it, will end within our lifetime if we do not do something to stop the bogeyman. Conservatives believe in the bogeyman of expense and that attempting to reverse climate change is too expensive and cuts into the profits of businesses. This is a rather untenable bogeyman so recently the conservatives have begun to attack the very existence of the problem. This makes their new bogeyman global climate change itself. The current champion of the conservatives in their efforts to deny the existence of Global Climate Change is an individual named John Coleman. Mister Coleman claims to be a meteorologist but he is in actuality a weatherman with a degree in journalism who is credited with the founding of the weather Channel, a very good credit and the creation of happy news the fluff news that we often see on local TV stations. The second is not a very admirable credit Mister Coleman contends that the entire global warming concept was started by Al Gore in 1967 along with his mentor. This would be an incredible accomplishment for someone like Vice President Gore who at the time was a enlisted journalist for Stars & Stripes magazine in Vietnam. This fact alone would separate all the conservative climate change deniers as their heroes never served a day but I digress. There is a bit of a factual problem here because in 1970 when I was using my G.I. bill to attend college at South Dakota School of Mines and Nerdology, we studied the concept of Zero Population Growth and the idea that man was having a massive effect on the very climate of our world. None of this information was attributed to Al Gore. Additionally Mister Coleman contends that $4.7 billion has been wasted trying to prevent Global Climate Change. This number appears to be a total plucked from air figure as Mister Coleman never explains where the number came from but he does go into great detail with the fact that the air in California, especially his home in San Diego, is now dramatically better to breathe than it was in the 70s and 80s. It would seem this fact alone would be worth $4.7 billion. I am sure that the number cited has to do with the costs of cleaning up our air, reducing our use of fossil fuels, and changing out our incandescent lightbulbs (another conservative bogeyman). Even if the 4.7 million billion dollar figure is correct it would seem a paltry sum to pay compared to the $4.7 trillion spent on the war in Iraq in an effort to secure oil reserves. Whether or not the climate is changing would appear to be irrelevant given the tremendous benefits that have accrued from attempting to stop the climate change. In other words we may have the right solution for the wrong problem. All fossil fuels are by nature an extinguishable source of energy and at the rate we were consuming them 10 years ago would not have lasted another hundred years. Many companies, Florida Power & Light for one are reporting reductions in the use of imported fossil fuel approaching 90%. Our total importation of foreign oil has reached a net zero and in fact for the first time in 50 years America is a net energy exporter. The entire globe has better air-quality today than 50 years ago. This alone would be worth the efforts we have made as things appear to be getting better. I will leave the debate over whether or not the conservatives have found a true bogeyman to history but I would say that if they are wrong we are all doomed but if the liberals are correct and we are successful in averting climatic disaster the world will be saved; further if our climate change is natural and we are unable to prevent further degradation of the climate we will still enjoy a dramatically improved lifestyle in our remaining years on this world.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 14:30:05 +0000
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