Two diaries are currently nestling almost side-by-side on the Recommended list: Clint Eastwood Has a Message for "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" Mitt Romney, which praises the Super Bowl ad that celebrates Detroit, as a symbol of the auto industry; and
Jeff Masters: the Climate Has Shifted to a New State, which discusses the unfolding climate disaster.
I recommended both diaries, which puts me in a double bind. Explanations below the orange binding device.
Politically, I love the Super Bowl ad: it's a finger in the eye of the Republicans who were so intent on taking down unionized labor that they didn't mind destroying a major US industry in the process.
Environmentally, it's a different story: the auto industry was a major player in the unfolding climate disaster. Even as it created jobs that helped to lift hundreds of thousands of workers into the middle class, it locked us onto an unsustainable path.
Let's get melodramatic about it: Either the auto industry dies, or we do. I'm not talking about Detroit dismantled and shipped off to China as scrap metal to build new car factories there--that's the classic vulture capitalism denouement, and it just makes the problem worse.
But Detroit revitalized, churning out 25-mpg SUVs for that commute to suburbia? That also means game over (although with an American flag pin)
Detroit transformed, turning out things like high-speed rail, is the only survivable option I know of. But at this point it's an environmentalist's absurd fantasy.