Why the right hates Gore and pretends global warming doesn't exist
In today's New York Times, Paul Krugman tackles why the right has gone batty over Gore's Nobel Peace prize: They hate that he keeps being right, despite their best efforts to smear him. Also, some good comments on why the right is so desperate to pretend global warming doesn't exist:
The sulfuric acid in America's lakes mainly comes from coal burned in U.S. power plants, but the carbon dioxide in America's air comes from coal and oil burned around the planet — and a ton of coal burned in China has the same effect on the future climate as a ton of coal burned here. So dealing with climate change not only requires new taxes or their equivalent; it also requires international negotiations in which the United States will have to give as well as get.Everything I've just said should be uncontroversial — but imagine the reception a Republican candidate for president would receive if he acknowledged these truths at the next debate. Today, being a good Republican means believing that taxes should always be cut, never raised. It also means believing that we should bomb and bully foreigners, not negotiate with them.
That's it in a nutshell. [Ed - Oops... I accidentally inserted my "That's it..." comment in the quote box. D'oh! Apologies to Paul Krugman and POLJUNK readers for the mistake.]
Comments
The Right's reaction is hilarious...and hysterical. For a body they claim not to care anything about on a subject most of them deny is valid, they are raising quite a stink. Makes you wonder who they're trying to convince, eh?
Posted by: Derek Phillips | October 15, 2007 4:44 PM
Yeah, if you don't agree about what causes global warming, that is fine. I personally don't really care about global warming, myself.
What I do give a shit about is the fact that you can find man-made chemicals in 6000-year old ice deposits, sulfuric acid in the water, all sorts of fun industrial toxins in the Great Lakes, etc. That is nothing to laugh at or dismiss.
But these dimbulbs will dismiss it, and only because it makes them feel superior. They can use "global warming" as their cover for not giving a shit, and they can use Al Gore as "liberal whipping boy" and make idiotic comments about how he shouldn't have a big house or whatever.
Posted by: barabajagal | October 17, 2007 1:33 PM
Hey B,
I'm curious to know... why don't you really care about global warming? Personally, it's probably my number one global/political/environmental concern, mostly because I have a young son and I'm worried about the world the baby boomers and my generation will be handing to him. Is it because you don't think the impact will be as bad as some suggest? Or that you think human ingenuity will reign it in in the long term? Or something else? It sounds like you believe it exists - you don't sound like a denier - but you're not that worried about it.
Posted by: Mike | October 17, 2007 3:27 PM
It's just that I'm far more concerned with all the things that may help to cause global warming--the industrial toxins and pollution that can cause disease, death, ecosystem collapse--than I am with the "warming" aspect.
Politically it makes sense, too. Global warming is being insidiously used by the Right as a stand in for all environmental concerns. It's easier to show someone "here's some poisons you've been drinking, here's the chemical in the ham you're feeding your kids" than to explain why they should care about the temperature change.
Posted by: barabajagal | October 17, 2007 3:52 PM
Excellent point, Bar. I had never considered the idea that the Right uses global warming (which, though real, is hard to show people in a concrete way) as a sort of red herring. Show people the shit they eat and drink every day and you might turn some more heads than discussing hypothetical scenarios that are decades, if not centuries, away.
Posted by: Derek Phillips | October 17, 2007 5:32 PM