I usually don’t post things a month and a half old but Yikes!
Paul Krugman in NYT: “But why have Republicans become the party of climate doom? Money is an important part of the answer: In the current cycle Republicans have received 97 percent of political contributions from the coal industry, 88 percent from oil and gas. And this doesn’t even count the wing nut welfare offered by institutions supported by the Koch brothers and other fossil-fuel moguls.
“However, I don’t believe that it’s just about the money. My sense is that right-wingers believe, probably correctly, that there’s a sort of halo effect surrounding any form of public action. Once you accept that we need policies to protect the environment, you’re more likely to accept the idea that we should have policies to ensure access to health care, child care, and more. So the government must be prevented from doing anything good, lest it legitimize a broader progressive agenda. …
“The only way that either American democracy or a livable planet can survive is if the Republican Party as it now exists is effectively dismantled and replaced with something better — maybe with a party that has the same name, but completely different values. This may sound like an impossible dream. But it’s the only hope we have.”
In the summer of 1990, I studied the law of the European Community (as it was then known) at a program in Brussels. The lecturer on European environmental law was an official from the European Commission. At a Q&A session afterward, he was very candid when asked about global warming (as it was then known). He said that upcoming elections in the UK and US made immediate action politically impossible but assured us that, once those elections were past, the issue would be dealt with. Boy, was he wrong! If it had been, this case would never have been brought and we would all be better off today.
“Climate change, when layered onto a mix of economic instability, violence and weak governance, can become fuel — a threat multiplier that could aggravate Honduras’ vulnerabilities, leaving people little choice but to flee. Already, immigration analysts note that roughly half the adults apprehended at the U.S. border work in agriculture, underscoring the precarious nature of their lives at home.”
It may not always give the definitive explanation (though it often will) but it will always be illuminating.
As Charles Pierce puts it, “We should at least have a national referendum on whether or not we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in a Roger Corman movie.”
