There is something about this big march to save the planet from the baleful effects of climate change that is sad. It isnt that there is nothing people should do about such an obvious, impending catastrophe. It isnt that there isnt a place for people to demand more action from their political leaders. Its that climate change is a very grownup problem and marching aimlessly around the streets of New York is akin to a bunch of toddlers crying mommy, make it better. One person informed me that the great outcome of this effort would be if the UN passed a meaningful resolution opposing climate change. I resisted the temptation to suggest he ask the Palestinians about the effectiveness and usefulness of meaningful UN resolutions. I did ask him how the already existing UN efforts to confront climate change were doing when it comes to CO2 build-up in the atmosphere. Useless sputtering ensued. The big problem is that anyone who thinks that marches will solve a dilemma like climate change has no grasp whatsoever on either the nature or seriousness of the problem. Pointing to scientific studies that determine CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are rising or watching animals die because their habitat has been permanently altered is not, by itself, taking the problem seriously. After all, we are in this mess because after at least 10,000 years of effort, humanity has figured out a technological infrastructure that makes our very survival possible. Yes, there is a lot of waste in the system but even if we eliminated all the frivolous uses for fire, we would still have a big-time problem. Because marching against climate change is piquantly quixotic, the true believers have already fallen into bizarre forms of bickering over which symbolic gesture will be more effective. Unfortunately, the real answer is none of the above. Only clever design and lots of hard work will make a dent in a problem this size and complexity. Of course, whenever any prescription mentions hard work, the speculators who skim all the fat out of the cauldron and lock it away for the sake of exhibitionism are horrified and poof—there would go your largest march in history. God forbid they should invest it in something really constructive to meet the challenge of climate change. Trickle-down is only true when no one has to bring that hoary phrase out of retirement, and then you know that investing has stopped and manipulative speculators have taken over. Nevertheless, there have been some interesting developments in the run up to this event. Probably the most fascinating is the response to Naomi Kleins horrifying error in suggesting the climate change deniers may have a better grasp on the problem than the Liberals / Progressives who claim such concern for the environment. She committed her sin on Democracy Now—a show so politically correct it borders on self-parody. Well, watch it yourself. She claims that organizations like the Heartland Institute start with the premise that doing anything meaningful about climate change means that many existing businesses from coal mining to the airlines will have to reinvent themselves at great cost and effort or go out of business. Since they would rather keep doing what they know, they find it cheaper to hire a bunch of charlatans to call the climate change evidence into question. And while Klein is understandably horrified that such things occur, she seems to find it refreshing that at least someone is taking the climate question seriously—even if they are the bad guys, the vested interests who want to preserve their power and privilege, especially when it means investing part of their surplus in an office of propaganda while an American Gestapo is under construction.* Because goodness knows, the Liberal / Progressive community is still at the mommy, make it better stage. *T’was ever thus. This is why it’s so surprising that American citizens let it happen all over again. media.crooksandliars/2014/09/30101.webm_high.webm
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 21:01:35 +0000
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