Three Take-Aways
- Climate change’s synergistic crises don’t allow us enough time to respond normally.
- The GQP & allies flood the world with lies, fear and bigotry to prevent progress.
- The Democratic coalition must fight with greater urgency, unity, boldness and innovation.
Lack of Time
Any crisis implies a lack of time. For example, the reason that climate change is a crisis is that species don’t have time to adapt to a changing environment. That includes us. Humans also do not have enough time to respond quickly enough.
We are being rapidly overcome by events we caused. Our atmosphere is sizzling with carbon-driven storms, our oceans are acidifying, and our land is alternately being baked or flooded. Any one of these changes in any area results in an ecological disaster, but now everything is happening everywhere all at once. Diminished snowpack reduces reservoirs, exacerbating drought and wildfires. Rising seas meet flooded rivers. Collapsing ecosystems kill pollinators, heat & floods lower crop yields, and fisheries are being extinguished. Resource conflicts drive a cycle of war and famine and refugees. And it will all get worse, much worse.
We have no time for business as usual. Our economic system neither prices the cost of pollution nor values life-sustaining ecosystems accurately. Economically, when your home burns down or washes away in a flood, that’s good for GDP, because the disaster doesn’t count against growth, only the rebuilding counts. The Amazon rainforest is being deforested, burned and reduced to scrub, but that’s profitable. Anyone who burns fossil fuel has contributed to the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, but nobody pays for the damage. Capitalism is selling out all life on earth for a quick buck. Only political leadership can change the incentives.
We likely lack sufficient time to craft grand, detailed, multi-decade global agreements to slowly wean our world economy away from fossil fuels. We likely lack sufficient time to invent, develop & implement new carbon capture technologies. And we definitely lack sufficient time for the normal, slow, consensus-building ways our herd-like society typically uses to adapt to changing circumstances. But we have to try.
It took me a decade to reconfigure my life to reduce my carbon footprint significantly, and most people are making zero tangible effort to do anything. We don’t have time to wait for individuals to voluntarily change their life-long behaviors out of goodwill. Government must incent and compel both corporations and individuals to stop burning carbon as soon as possible.
We no longer have time to solve the climate crisis in our normal ways. We have no more time to waste debating the facts with liars or idiots. Wherever possible, we must elect candidates who support solving our crises now.
The GQP Flood of Lies and Hate
Яepublicans sow discord, seeking to divide us with lies, and offer no solutions, only threats to take away our rights and our Democracy with force. Mark Sumner wrote of the turn of the tide in Ukraine, and it reminds me of the urgent need to fight for our Democracy now too. Trump and circumstances have brought us to a low point, and we may not yet be at the lowest point. But we have no time to waste on fear. I have frequently mocked hopeless posters here with the following clip, right before Gandalf clocks him.
Яepublicans have been lying, filibustering, gaslighting, Gish-galloping, and sea-lioning the American people for decades. It’s an evil strategy often used by incompetent bullies like Trump and Putin to overwhelm truth and good sense with an endless stream of weak, flawed, dishonest and completely made-up arguments. It’s not new.
“Besides, as the vilest Writer has his Readers, so the greatest Liar has his Believers; and it often happens, that if a Lie be believ’d only for an Hour, it has done its Work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.” — Jonathan Swift, 1710
I know. To my embarrassment, I went to St. George’s prep school with Tucker Carlson and his wife Susan Andrews and her father, the headmaster Rev. George Andrews II, who failed to report at least one teacher who sexually assaulted some of my classmates. Appropriately in 1984, I even once argued with the smarmy, little bow-tie wearing Tucker about abortion. Tucker tried fast-talking a series of spurious points past me. I responded by telling him facts about unnecessary deaths due to coat-hangers prior to Roe v. Wade. He wasn’t interested in facts, only right-wing ideology.
My privileged background there and at Harvard provided me a front-row seat to Яepublicanism, from my father defending Nixon right up until he fled the White House, to the exclusion of Jews from our country club, to misogyny at secretive Final Clubs, and to witnessing a racist slur-laden tirade against a young black teen visiting a wealthy gated summer community, where they still celebrate a Native American killing General every 4th of July. Hatred, fear and bigotry are unifying forces for them. No matter the amount of wealth amassed by Яepublican families, like frozen fish-stick heir Tucker Carlson, there was never any willingness to “waste” a penny on anyone less fortunate.
Only a Broad Coalition can Restore Progress
With some dismay I have been following discussions here about finding the “one issue” that Democrats can rally behind. And while I used the example of the climate crisis above—because it will affect all of us directly—, I strongly believe we must not be a single issue party. We all suffer when our fellow Americans lose our liberties or suffer injustices, whether they be women losing the right to choose, African Americans again losing fair access to vote, Asian Americans attacked, LGBT+ Americans denied human rights, people indebted for education or healthcare, the environmental & human cost of the climate crisis, or any other people suffering from the selfish, hate-driven policies that Яepublicans use to divide us. If there must be only one issue, let it be “liberty and justice for all”.
The upcoming elections will decide whether Congress will pass urgently needed legislation to protect our liberties, seek justice and take effective steps to mitigate the climate crisis, or whether we regress to a dark age of fascism, injustice and increasing catastrophes. We need to be strong, bold and innovative. The justice system isn’t acting fast enough to save the country. We must pass emergency legislation to protect voting rights, human rights, and combat all forms of injustice, including environmental injustice. To do that, we must increase our share of Congress.
Rather than let the west dry out and burn, we should consider shipping water from the east. Why couldn’t solar desalinators fill barges of water in the Gulf of Mexico, carry tanks along the Santa Fe railroad, and refill the Little Colorado River? I’ve recently visited Native American reservations in the area, and the water has almost all been diverted to large cities, turning once vibrant & productive land into dust. If feasible, we need to do so while ecosystems can still be restored. There’s no time to lose.
Each of Us Must Speak Out More
For me, I’ve had enough of all the lies, delay-tactics and division. I’m tired of waiting in fear for others to save the world. Our institutions will only do what we force them to do. Like the Whos Horton heard, we must all make more noise, before we’re boiled alive. Since Tucker is openly promoting white nationalism on TV, then everyone who disagrees with Nazis needs to speak out.
I found this site shortly after I learned that Яepublicans were lying to kids through Scholastic magazine. Perhaps due to my own struggle to learn the truth at a young age, that offended me deeply. For years I lurked, and then I joined but kept my identity private. My previous employer, Charles Schwab, did not allow licensed HQ employees to blog about anything, supposedly due to legal concerns. I’ve deleted most of my least appreciated stories, and I’m sure I still need to apologize for some of my comments.
But I’m now a free person. I suppose I’m now an Ex-CorpFlunky. I no longer see any reason to hide my identity, since I doubt anyone cares. It’s been several years since my views on gun control brought me physical threats. The traditional Republicans I grew up with, including family—who still support their party, even when the party leadership won’t condemn lies, bigotry or insurrection—, probably won’t listen anyways. If being open about who I am and what I believe helps even a bit, then it’s worth it. If we fail politically and lose our Democracy, then the climate crisis will soon make all other problems seem trivial.
I am currently traveling the country visiting national parks via electric vehicle. My blog is Zero Carbon Travel (https://zct.life). My name is Ned Lawrence.