Ignoring Deadly Climate Change
By James Donahue
I am presently living in a moderate climate zone along the west California coast where we are enjoying perfect 70 plus degree temperatures, morning fog that waters the plants, and lots of afternoon sunlight. But the weather here is attracting thousands of people from inland where the temperatures are constantly soaring well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the lack of rainfall is spawning deadly forest fires. The cars are backed up for miles as those sweaty bodies choose to fight the traffic for a chance to cool off on our beaches.
While we Californians are glad to be hanging our hats in homes in this temperate zone, we are obviously troubled by the human masses now packing the shoreline where we used to swim, hold picnic gatherings and enjoy some time in the California sunshine. But we still wouldn’t trade our places for theirs.
We are troubled too by the deadly forest fires sweeping the forests, dry grasslands and communities to the north and south of us. And we look with concern at the great trees from the forest that abuts our community on the hills just to the east. Will the day come when we too will be forced to flee for our lives from ravaging flames burning nearly over our heads?
Of even more concern is the knowledge that our elected “leaders” in Washington are going out of their way to ignore the threat of climate change, and refusing to join the European Union, China, India and South American nations in their decisions to do all they can to control the burning of carbon fuels and shift to alternate sources of solar, wind and ocean produced energies. We wonder how they can justify this inaction when Washington D.C. and the East Coast is suffering from intense heat and extreme storms and floods.
Well-known social critic and political activist Noam Chomsky recently put it all in perspective in a published interview with investigative journalist Amy Goodman. In the story, published in Truthout, Chomsky said: “Of all Trump’s policies, the one that is the most dangerous and destructive, in fact poses an existential threat, is his policies on climate change, on global warming. That’s really destructive. And we’re facing an imminent threat, not far removed, of enormous damage.”
Chomsky went on to say: “I don’t know what word in the language — I can’t find one — that applies to people of that kind, who are willing to sacrifice the literal — the existence of organized human life, not in the distant future, so they can put a few more dollars in highly overstuffed pockets. The word “evil” doesn’t begin to approach it.”
What is even more disconcerting, Chomsky noted, is that the media also appears to be ignoring this major news story, filling published space with what he called “marginalia.” It is mostly about the president and his misdeeds, and the mass shootings, public riots and more recently the deadly fires and floods that are breaking out all over the planet. Few reports are linking these events to climate change.
It is not that Mr. Trump is not aware of the warming planet. Chomsky noted that Trump recently applied to the Irish government for permission to build a wall to protect his golf course from rising sea levels.
By James Donahue
I am presently living in a moderate climate zone along the west California coast where we are enjoying perfect 70 plus degree temperatures, morning fog that waters the plants, and lots of afternoon sunlight. But the weather here is attracting thousands of people from inland where the temperatures are constantly soaring well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the lack of rainfall is spawning deadly forest fires. The cars are backed up for miles as those sweaty bodies choose to fight the traffic for a chance to cool off on our beaches.
While we Californians are glad to be hanging our hats in homes in this temperate zone, we are obviously troubled by the human masses now packing the shoreline where we used to swim, hold picnic gatherings and enjoy some time in the California sunshine. But we still wouldn’t trade our places for theirs.
We are troubled too by the deadly forest fires sweeping the forests, dry grasslands and communities to the north and south of us. And we look with concern at the great trees from the forest that abuts our community on the hills just to the east. Will the day come when we too will be forced to flee for our lives from ravaging flames burning nearly over our heads?
Of even more concern is the knowledge that our elected “leaders” in Washington are going out of their way to ignore the threat of climate change, and refusing to join the European Union, China, India and South American nations in their decisions to do all they can to control the burning of carbon fuels and shift to alternate sources of solar, wind and ocean produced energies. We wonder how they can justify this inaction when Washington D.C. and the East Coast is suffering from intense heat and extreme storms and floods.
Well-known social critic and political activist Noam Chomsky recently put it all in perspective in a published interview with investigative journalist Amy Goodman. In the story, published in Truthout, Chomsky said: “Of all Trump’s policies, the one that is the most dangerous and destructive, in fact poses an existential threat, is his policies on climate change, on global warming. That’s really destructive. And we’re facing an imminent threat, not far removed, of enormous damage.”
Chomsky went on to say: “I don’t know what word in the language — I can’t find one — that applies to people of that kind, who are willing to sacrifice the literal — the existence of organized human life, not in the distant future, so they can put a few more dollars in highly overstuffed pockets. The word “evil” doesn’t begin to approach it.”
What is even more disconcerting, Chomsky noted, is that the media also appears to be ignoring this major news story, filling published space with what he called “marginalia.” It is mostly about the president and his misdeeds, and the mass shootings, public riots and more recently the deadly fires and floods that are breaking out all over the planet. Few reports are linking these events to climate change.
It is not that Mr. Trump is not aware of the warming planet. Chomsky noted that Trump recently applied to the Irish government for permission to build a wall to protect his golf course from rising sea levels.