Some climate scientists are attacked by the
We need Positive Vision #1, acting to
right wing and subjected to investigations. Some scientists have received emails from people inflamed by right wing disinformation containing thinly veiled death threats.
mitigate the climate problem.
Efforts to deal with the change, from renewable servation efforts, are also right wing. Subsidies for
exists. It is scientifically clear that this global warming is mostly due to humans consuming fossil fuels. It is scientifically clear that the impacts of global warming and climate
So what is the climate problem? It is scientifically clear that the global warming trend of climate change since 1975
risks of climate energy to conattacked by the fossil fuels are
welcomed. While direct and indirect subsidies for fossil fuels (including public roads) are huge, any subsidies for renewable energy are attacked.
change are starting to be observed now, will be increasingly serious if we do not act sufficiently, and will be overwhelmingly negative.
These attacks are backed by the fossil fuel industry, whose profits are threatened and who I believe are afraid of being accused of climate change liability, plus libertarian think
Climate change is the biggest ethical and moral problem of our times. It is also the biggest survivability problem of our times. The climate problem is humanity's problem.
tanks that dislike government action. One of the worst of these is the Heartland Institute, which defends smoking. This is actually not surprising, since the same tactics and some
Let’s start with the Business as Usual Vision #2, where we do not take action. In the metaphor, these people deny the climate train even exists. Their denial and hostility leaves
of the same people railing against climate science previously tried to cast doubt on the science that exposed harmful effects of smoking.
the car on the train tracks. What are the consequences as described by mainstream research? The poorest and weakest, those who did
These people oppose Positive Vision #1. They deny the climate problem exists. They deny the findings of mainstream climate science. They cling to Vision #2, Business as
the least to cause the climate problem, will be those who will suffer the most. However we all will be severely affected, including right here in the United States. There will be no
Usual.
safe haven and no place to hide.
Five years ago the International Panel on Climate Change or IPCC and Al Gore shared a Nobel Prize for work on climate change. The
Our grandchildren and other future generations not yet born, who did nothing to cause the climate problem, will be those who
discussion then was on action—attempts to mitigate and when necessary adapt to climate change. That is where the discussion should be now. We cannot allow the disinformation
will suffer the most. Is saying this, as the right wing puts it, being alarmist? I certainly hope so. I want people to be alarmed. There is good reason to
campaign to derail us.
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