Al Gore has a new essay in the latest issue of Rolling Stone regarding the continued Climate of Denial. And although Politico chooses to focus on his criticism of President Obama (and praise for what action he has taken on environmental issues), I want to focus on Gore's brilliant analogy first.
The media as pro wrestling's ineffective referee, turning its head at just the right time to play along to the well timed coordinated low blows (like a folding chair over the head) to the "good guy" by being conveniently distracted. But the same referee just happened to catch the "good guy" doing such a small thing, a tiny "infraction" and gets all over him, basically (think of some small mistake scientists have made that was completely blow out of proportion), the balance is just off. Leading to this question:
Is it real is the question? Is wrestling real?
The answer to the question "Is it real?" seemed connected to the question of whether the referee was somehow confused about his role: Was he too an entertainer?
That is pretty much the role now being played by most of the news media in refereeing the current wrestling match over whether global warming is "real," and whether it has any connection to the constant dumping of 90 million tons of heat-trapping emissions into the Earth's thin shell of atmosphere every 24 hours.
I believe it has to do with a couple of issues, the false equivalency that happens when people say that both sides manufacture their own problems, they create a sense of distrust because of lying, bad science, etc.
No, both sides of the argument are NOT equal. And giving both sides of the argument is not "fair and balanced" because both sides do not have the same interests in mind.
Secondly, I believe that the media goes out of its way to seem overly cautious in accusations of being liberally minded. They tip the balance to the other side in order to try to change that perception in order to appease the constant cries of "Liberal media bias".
And then there is that little issue of who owns the media, it's minor. But it's corporate owned and it's not just about reporting news, the media seems to want to make news as well.
The referee — in this analogy, the news media — seems confused about whether he is in the news business or the entertainment business. Is he responsible for ensuring a fair match? Or is he part of the show, selling tickets and building the audience? The referee certainly seems distracted: by Donald Trump, Charlie Sheen, the latest reality show — the list of serial obsessions is too long to enumerate here.
But the evidence has been piling up for years, and even more so in the last twelve months as Vice President Gore points out:
• Heat. According to NASA, 2010 was tied with 2005 as the hottest year measured since instruments were first used systematically in the 1880s. Nineteen countries set all-time high temperature records. One city in Pakistan, Mohenjo-Daro, reached 128.3 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest temperature ever measured in an Asian city. Nine of the 10 hottest years in history have occurred in the last 13 years. The past decade was the hottest ever measured, even though half of that decade represented a "solar minimum" — the low ebb in the natural cycle of solar energy emanating from the sun.
• Floods. Megafloods displaced 20 million people in Pakistan, further destabilizing a nuclear-armed country; inundated an area of Australia larger than Germany and France combined; flooded 28 of the 32 districts that make up Colombia, where it has rained almost continuously for the past year; caused a "thousand-year" flood in my home city of Nashville; and led to all-time record flood levels in the Mississippi River Valley. Many places around the world are now experiencing larger and more frequent extreme downpours and snowstorms; last year's "Snowmaggedon" in the northeastern United States is part of the same pattern, notwithstanding the guffaws of deniers.
• Drought. Historic drought and fires in Russia killed an estimated 56,000 people and caused wheat and other food crops in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan to be removed from the global market, contributing to a record spike in food prices. "Practically everything is burning," Russian president Dmitry Medvedev declared. "What's happening with the planet's climate right now needs to be a wake-up call to all of us." The drought level in much of Texas has been raised from "extreme" to "exceptional," the highest category. This spring the majority of the counties in Texas were on fire, and Gov. Rick Perry requested a major disaster declaration for all but two of the state's 254 counties. Arizona is now fighting the largest fire in its history. Since 1970, the fire season throughout the American West has increased by 78 days. Extreme droughts in central China and northern France are currently drying up reservoirs and killing crops.
• Melting Ice. An enormous mass of ice, four times larger than the island of Manhattan, broke off from northern Greenland last year and slipped into the sea. The acceleration of ice loss in both Greenland and Antarctica has caused another upward revision of global sea-level rise and the numbers of refugees expected from low-lying coastal areas. The Arctic ice cap, which reached a record low volume last year, has lost as much as 40 percent of its area during summer in just he 30 years.
So why are we not doing more? We can thank the media, just as I stated, they are treating this as if it both sides of the story are the same side of the issue, they bot have equal value. BUT THEY DON'T.
A Fox News executive, in an internal e-mail to the network's reporters and editors that later became public, questioned the "veracity of climate change data" and ordered the journalists to "refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question."
This is what we're up against, institutionalized denial that has been bought and paid for by your favorite oil companies, Koch Brothers and any other large corporation that is bound to lose millions in profits if people actually saw the light and understood why we have to rethink how we do things now, not tomorrow, not in twenty years, but NOW.
And I have to agree Vice President Gore, what we are doing is "functionally insane" and that our actions have consequences, or our inaction.
But you can do something. You must read the whole essay, I cannot quote the whole thing and although it is important to focus on this, Obama can do something as well and we need to push him to do this for all of us:
Here is the core of it: we are destroying the climate balance that is essential to the survival of our civilization. This is not a distant or abstract threat; it is happening now. The United States is the only nation that can rally a global effort to save our future. And the president is the only person who can rally the United States.
I think Vice President Gore wants to push President Obama to do more and I know that President Obama has clearly stated the science is sound. But that is not enough, there needs to be more done!
There are many things that I would want Obama to do more on with Climate Change and Environmental issues. If the environment goes, jobs won't matter, if the oceans goes, everything else is secondary, we are but another pesky memory for Mother Earth.
But please, know, that we can do something, that we MUST do something. I believe that it has to go beyond merely pointing fingers at Obama (He needs to do something, being the leader of the free world, he has to set the tone, which has not been enough for me, he must do more).
But what can YOU DO? There are five steps you can take, but most importantly I want to put this one here for you to concentrate on:
Finally, and above all, don't give up on the political system. Even though it is rigged by special interests, it is not so far gone that candidates and elected officials don't have to pay attention to persistent, engaged and committed individuals. President Franklin Roosevelt once told civil rights leaders who were pressing him for change that he agreed with them about the need for greater equality for black Americans. Then, as the story goes, he added with a wry smile, "Now go out and make me do it."
To make our elected leaders take action to solve the climate crisis, we must forcefully communicate the following message: "I care a lot about global warming; I am paying very careful attention to the way you vote and what you say about it; if you are on the wrong side, I am not only going to vote against you, I will work hard to defeat you — regardless of party. If you are on the right side, I will work hard to elect you."