
FROM THE LEFT
Living on the edge of extinction in a blood for oil economy
By Vicki Bush
Special to the Daily Commercial
This American land, once again, finds itself at a powerful crossroad in history. We have a scandalous administration, on multiple fronts, committed to denying the climate crisis. Decades ago, major oil company memos showed that the powers that be knew about impending manmade global warming. They knew then — 50 years ago— and of course, they know now. So why do they continue to deny and delay, propagandize, sideline, and destroy scientific data? Is it greed? Is it sin?
Sticking their heads in tar oil sands and skirting under oil pipeline contaminated water, all the usual suspects; evangelical zealots vying for white domination over dominion; Tea Party white identity/white victimhood heritage corroborator patriot grifters; and last, but not least, “the heartlands under assault” NRA non denial deniers who believe that “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”
These xenophobic nostalgic ethnic-chauvinists pushed their luck and passed the buck; now and forever, amen! With cult-like synchronized uniformity, they drank the Kool Aid of Republican leadership state-run criminality and corruption. Using a callously choreographed payback plan with revengedriven street theatre spin, they swallowed the bait, clicked on the link, and were hooked.
Their new oath: “the truth becomes the lie.”
Slightly analogous to throwing out the PGA rulebook before the U.S.
Open, this Administration and their lobbyist cronies diss the rule of law and our Constitutional rights. Illegally taking strokes off their game and using their “hand wedge” to improve their inept “lie,” they slow walk an inside game against real-world climate crisis.
They disappear climate data fact-based scientific research while feeding their desire to control power by whatever means necessary as they take the money and run.
As the changing climate takes precedent on the world stage it engulfs major policy issues, not the least of which is immigration. With each season, as the number of nights above 75 F doubles, productive agricultural and fishing territory lessens leading to migration of refugee asylum seekers for survival. For decades, this scenario has been playing out the world over, and as the climate crisis peaks, it is only going to get worse.
Our government under the Trump/Pence Administration has built theirhouse on sand, not the rock-solid foundation of our founders. We deserve a government that does the hard work of actual governing for all. A government that lifts us up, gives us hope, and keeps us safe. Republicans got the memo on the impending climate crisis a long time ago and now we see, and realize first-hand, their abhorrent solutions and results. In an ordained cast system, Trump supporters see themselves as the pure white rich cream that rises to the top. E pluribus unum be damned. The most recent National Climate Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, established in 1988, has found that any rise in temperature must be kept below 1.5 degrees Celsius. As the earth warms, air pollution, poor water quality, soil wearing out, and disease threatening human life, healthy communities and critical infrastructure all become more prevalent.
The IPCC reviews vast amounts of science being generated around climate and produces synthesis reports every four years.
Two-degree Celsius threshold rise separates safe from dangerous.
3- degree Celsius rise is beyond what much of the world could bear.
Our new secretary of the Interior, David Bernhardt, now embroiled in his own investigation, is poised to exploit 17 million acres of critical habitat natural heritage public land for drilling, including coastal waters. This Administration is rushing to expose nearly all our coasts to the dangers of oil and gas leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf while global warming pushes toward a tipping point with major ice sheets melting allowing toxic C02 permafrost release to contaminate water, land, and air.
With the Biblical pronouncement of “treasures on earth versus treasures in heaven” coming to mind, the party of Trump rakes in their political winnings with a semblance of perceivability in a sort of white victimhood reparation of what they view as the unfair game of democracy. Using Vegas odds in denying climate change, it certainly does appear that Republicans have decided to double down and go for broke with our planet and our lives.
As a global community, we understand and acknowledge that our existence, built on faith and works, depends on being good stewards of the land, oceans, and atmosphere because these are our livelihood. But with the clock ticking, we need to do so much more. The price of inaction is unthinkable.
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
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