Carole Cadwalladr on Al Gore and Climate Change

 

Iceberg Calving

Take a moment to read Carole Cadwalladr’s article in The Guardian, “Al Gore: ‘The rich have subverted all reason'”. a discussion of Gore and Gore’s new sequel to “An Inconvenient Truth”.  Gore has been at the forefront of the movement to heighten public awareness of the dangers of global warming, an effort dating from before his original blockbuster documentary.  His experiences are instructive because, as with the earlier fight against tobacco, the fight against global warming faces a disinformation campaign from the corporate interests who perceive their profits at risk, in this case the fossil fuel producers led by the Koch brothers.

Cadwalladr writes: “One of Trump’s first acts after his inauguration was to remove all mentions of climate change from federal websites. More overlooked is that one of Theresa May’s first actions on becoming prime minister – within 24 hours of taking office – was to close the Department for Energy and Climate Change; subsequently donations from oil and gas companies to the Conservative party continued to roll in. And what is increasingly apparent is that the same think tanks that operate in the States are also at work in Britain, and climate change denial operates as a bridgehead: uniting the right and providing an entry route for other tenets of Alt-Right belief. And, it’s this network of power that Gore has had to try to understand, in order to find a way to combat it.

[Says Gore] ‘In Tennessee we have an expression: “If you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you can be pretty sure it didn’t get there by itself.” And if you see these levels of climate denial, you can be pretty sure it didn’t just spread itself. The large carbon polluters have spent between $1bn and $2bn spreading false doubt. Do you know the book, Merchants of Doubt?  It documents how the tobacco industry discredited the consensus on cigarette smoking and cancer by creating doubt, and shows how it’s linked to the climate denial movement. They hired many of the same PR firms and some of the same think tanks. And, in fact, some of those who work on climate change denial actually still dispute the links between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.'”

Notes Cadwalladr,  “What becomes clear over the course of several conversations [with Gore] is how entwined he believes it all is – climate change denial, the interests of big capital, ‘dark money’, billionaire political funders, the ascendancy of Trump and what he calls (he’s written a book on it) ‘the assault against reason’. They are all pieces of the same puzzle; a puzzle that Gore has been tracking for years, because it turns out that climate change denial was the canary in the coal mine.”

Gore is nonetheless relentlessly upbeat – noting other successful social movements, he feels that surely, in his view, Trump is a blip in the road.  Notwithstanding Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, Gore is heartened by the reaction of the other 19 countries in the G 20.

Perhaps he is correct, but he is more certainly on point when he ties the disinformation campaign of the Right to the other political shenanigans currently in vogue.  Here’s Cadwalladr’s wrap up: “Brexit, Trump, climate change, oil producers, dark money, Russian influence, a full- frontal assault on facts, evidence, journalism, science, it’s all connected. Ask Al Gore. You may want to watch Wonder Woman this summer, but to understand the new reality we’re living in, you really should watch An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. Because, terrifying as they are, in some ways the typhoons and exploding glaciers are just the start of it. “

For my part, I am less than confident that sufficient action on climate change will be taken.  Gore, for all his presence and articulateness, has been at this effort for over ten years and yet the US is backsliding at a terrifying rate even as the environmental catastrophes loom.  Nothing guarantees that we win this fight.  The current efforts at degrading mainstream journalism and at spreading disinformation through right-wing outlets and social media have been more than successful.  A wake up is in order.

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Science in America” – Let There be Light

Discharge from a Tesla coil

In 2002, Jenny Uglow, an English scholar and biographer, wrote The Lunar Men, following the 1760s exploits of a small group of men – the Lunar Society of Birmingham.  The book details a slice of the English 18th Century Enlightenment, a period when the intelligentsia of England were discovering the power of science.  This is from the book jacket, “Among them were the ambitious toymaker Matthew Boulton and his partner James Watt, of steam-engine fame, the potter Josiah Wedgwood; and the larger-than-life Erasmus Darwin, physician, poet, inventor, and the theorist of evolution (a forerunner of his grandson Charles).  Later came Joseph Priestley, fighting radical and discoverer of oxygen….  Blending science, art, and commerce, the Lunar Men built canals, launched balloons; named plants, gases, and minerals; changed the face of England and the china in its drawing rooms; and plotted to revolutionize its soul.”  Subtitled “Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World”, The Lunar Men is a testament to the power of curiosity and scientific method.  It’s a great read if you are curious about the history of science – about how the amazing tools we use came to be.

I had the privilege to grow up in a family where science and knowledge were core values.  My dad worked on the design of our nuclear submarines.  My older brother was building radio receivers at 10 or 11 out in the workshop while I squandered Saturday mornings watching Cowboy shows.  But enough of it rubbed off on me so that I and several other members of the family have amateur radio licenses.   The night before last I talked with my brother 100 miles away over our own rigs – mine hooked up to a jury-rigged dipole antenna strung out in the back yard.  What is fascinating is that it works, that we actually know how to do it, and, at least in a descriptive way, can tell you how it works.  Because real science is power and because there is only one objective reality – a set of truths that one can discover and use.

Noted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson recently released a four minute video podcast on the subject “Science in America”.   Tyson’s video is a warning to us, a wake up call that too many of us take the science for granted, are smug in our own ignorance even as to what science means or how it works.   Hence we have a puzzling juxtaposition.   Right-wing Trump supporters believe blatant lies and deny the established science.   The head of the EPA denies the science of global-warming,  Mr. Pence argues that evolution should be taught as only a “theory”.  Those same people benefit every minute from the products of modern science; they tweet on their IPhones, heat their bagels in microwaves, and head out to work in their BMWs.  Logically these alternate realities should not coexist.   But they do.  And now Trump and his allies are dismantling the government protections of the Environmental Protection Agency and the impetus toward renewable resources, all the while publicly pondering whether Nuclear Weapons should be kept on the shelf or might not be so dangerous after all.

In short, we face an existential threat because, not only is the science real, but because ignorance of it, ignorance of what is true, can have consequences.  If you haven’t seen it yet, also take a look at this Wally Shawn interview with Noam Chomsky; find the link at my blog My Dinner with Noam.   Am I being too intolerant to suggest that willful ignorance deserves  public contempt?

Trump Denies Climate Change – Arctic Melts

Yesterday Trump issued orders of idiotic proportions rolling back Obama era rules that protect the environment.  See Coral Davenport’s report in The New York Times, “Trump Signs Executive Order Unwinding Obama Climate Policies.”  The orders reflect the clearest indication yet that Trump will carry through on his promise to scrap efforts against global warming.  Davenport notes: “analysts say Mr. Trump’s order signals that the United States will not meet its pledges under the Paris deal to cut its emissions about 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2025.  ‘Meeting the U.S. terms of the Paris Agreement would require full enforcement of the current regulations, plus additional regulations,’ said Michael Oppenheimer, a climate scientist at Princeton University. ‘It takes a comprehensive effort involving every country doing what they committed to and more.’”

Damian Carrington in Mother Jones,  in “Basically, the Arctic Is Melting, the World Has Gone Crazy, and It’s All Our Fault“, provides a dramatic review of what is going on.  Carrington describes how global warming is leading to significant increases in extreme weather events.  For example, scientists have found that global warming leads to conditions favoring stalled weather systems under which a given system – drought, or rain – can remain stationary for long periods.

The article notes: “‘Human activity has been suspected of contributing to this pattern before, but now we uncover a clear fingerprint of human activity,’ said Michael Mann, a professor at Pennsylvania State University in the US who led the study published in the journalScientific Reports.

Kai Kornhuber, at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany, and another member of the research team, said: ‘We looked into dozens of different climate models, as well as into observational data, and it turns out that the temperature distribution favoring planetary wave stalling increased in almost 70 percent of the simulations.’

Large scale wind patterns are largely driven by the temperature difference between the poles and the tropics. But global warming is altering this difference because the Arctic is heating up faster than lower latitudes and because land areas are heating up faster than the oceans.

Recent changes in the Arctic are particularly striking, with record low levels of ice cover and extremely unusual high temperatures. ‘Things in the Arctic are happening much faster than we expected,’ said Professor Stefan Rahmstorf, also at PIK.

‘It is not just a problem of nature conservation or polar bears, it is about a threat to human society that comes from these rapid changes,’ he said. ‘This is because it hits us with increasing extreme events in the highly populated centers in the mid-latitudes. It also affects us through sea level rise, which is hitting shores globally. So these changes that are going on in the Arctic should concern everyone.’

So, while you are contemplating the ever mounting evidence that Trump colluded with Russian operatives to steal the 2016 election, consider the undeniable fact that he is actively leading the fight to increase carbon emissions and bring about climatic disaster.

A Proposal for Reform

Here’s my premise.

The proper role of government is to protect and ensure the welfare of the people.

A government is most likely to carry out the interests, and thus welfare, of the people if it reflects the will of the majority – that is to say, if it is democratic.

Our existing government reflects the interests of a rich oligarchy.  Its electoral process has been corrupted by the influence of money and has led to a dangerous level of income inequality.   Our government  protects and benefits the rich rather than the population at large.

Our government should therefore be reformed.

The following principles would ensure a public-interested democracy ;

Campaign finance reform.  Private money in elections should be strictly limited.  The precise mechanism is less important than the principle.  A reasonable approach would be to provide a set amount of public financing to the top four parties in the prior election and limit private donations to $200 per individual per candidate.  Corporate money should be prohibited.

Prohibit gerrymandering.  In this computer age, gerrymandering – the creation of safe electoral districts – is highly effective in removing accountability.  Accountability is the life blood of democracy.  Therefore independent commissions should oversee reapportionment of all electoral districts, using advanced computer algorithms to maximize competitiveness.

Prohibit regressive systems of taxation.  Government policies must not act to increase income inequality.

Guarantee universal health care.  The point of government is the welfare of the people.  What could be more central than protecting health?

Guarantee public education through four years of college or the equivalent.  Education is necessary to the welfare of both the individual and the society.

Restore the Fairness Doctrine for mainstream broadcasting.  Our system of government has been distorted by the twenty-four hour propaganda of media outlets such as Fox News and Breitbart which, for ideological purposes, spew a steady stream of false and malicious news.  An independent, nonpartisan, commission should review mainstream broadcasts.  Intentional broadcasting of political slurs without evidence – such as the Obama birthing movement – should lead to fines or loss of license.

Require adherence to environmental principles of sustainability.  Protection of the environment is a necessary precondition to protection of public welfare.

Adopt a parliamentary system of governance similar to those used in Western Europe.  The current American system has led to dangerous gridlock when control of Congress and the Executive have been split, while failing to provide useful checks on power when both are controlled by the same party.  Its weakness is especially visible at this moment when there is no effective system to limit the authoritarian practices of Mr. Trump, or to remove him without an impeachment requiring proof of crimes or misdemeanors.  Importantly, parliamentary systems allow removal of the executive by a vote of “no confidence”.  The term of any particular government without election should be limited, perhaps to four years, to ensure accountability to the public.

The Constitution should be amended as necessary.