Molly Ivins: Global Warming: What, Me Worry?

[Jack Rabbit]

From TruthDig.com
Dated Monday April 3

Global Warming: What, Me Worry?
By Molly Ivins

On the premise that spring is too beautiful for a depressing topic like Iraq, I thought I’d take up a fun subject—global warming.

Time magazine warns us to “Be Worried. Be Very Worried.” On the other hand, my sister is on the Global Warming Committee of the Unitarian Church in Albuquerque, N.M. They go around replacing old light bulbs with more energy-efficient models. My money’s on my sis.

It’s a good thing the phrase “the tipping point” became a cliche just in time to help us describe global warming. Just a few years ago, we were more or less cruising along on global warming, with maybe 50 years or so to Do Something about it. Suddenly, the only question is how soon to push the panic button, and 10 minutes ago appears to be the right answer.

People in journalism are the worst criers of “Wolf!” imaginable. We are always setting off alarms about Ebola, or avian flu, or the impending water shortage, or the Social Security crisis, or killer bees, or the pine bark beetle, or anorexia among teenagers (surpassed only by obesity among teenagers). Boy, if we can’t sell you a scare with a few headlines and some mashed facts, no one can.

Read more.

[Pirate Smile]

1. The end of the column

"It’s true the United States could make a good thing out of specializing in green energy and green technology—but we are still living with an administration that subsidizes the oil industry. The question is where the political leadership is going to come from before we reach the Panic Point, before Miami Beach sinks underwater, before Wall Street needs a seawall.

Al Gore is all we’ve got, and the right wing is still prepared to dismiss him with contempt and ridicule, not because he’s wrong but because they’d rather talk about the time he was supposedly advised to wear earth tones.

As the Earth drifts toward crisis, our president does not yet seem capable of grasping even the First Rule of Holes. We’re in one, and it is time to quit digging.

At the very least, it is time to replace those old light bulbs. Get busy, team. "

[Jack Rabbit]

3. What gets me about their attitude

Do Lee Raymond and the other corporate fathers at Exxon really think they can take it with them? Do they not know that they, too, will suffer from breathing polluted air or drown in rising seas?

Science that is purchased to speak for a special interest is not science; it is propaganda. These people know as well as anyone else that global warming is real and that they contribute significantly to it. It would cut into their profits for a short time to do something about it, so they do nothing. Their profits trump our lives and their own?

That is just insane.

[Uncle Joe]

6. I agree Jack Rabbit,

and you would think they would at least care about the world their kids and grandkids will inherit.

[gasperc]

2. I'd eleaborate on her point which is a good one

Time runs a cover and a story telling us to panic and freak out over global warming, great now we are all in a froth and frenzy, so what the fuck do we do about it??

She points out quite simply her sister changing old light bulbs, it's not about saving 8cents a month on your electric bill. It's about 300million Americans switching their lights and saving the earth from a catastrophe!!

Fuck, am I the only one with kids in America?? We are handing over a cess poll of environmental meltdowns and a crippled economy with no way to pay for corrective action. It is the job of the government to intervene and force retailers to only sell more energy efficient light bulbs, cars, appliances you name it. When I go to the hardware store I have a choice between the cheapest bulb and the energy efficient bulb. If I have the money, I'll get the energy efficient bulb but most of the time I have to buy the cheapest. I know this is true of alot of Americans. It'll be the little things that we do collectively that will change the world.
A conservative lady I worked with while Germany once griped about the various trash bins (for recycling) in the McDonalds, she moaned "like pollution is all my fault", I told her how collectively it all adds up to make a huge difference. She just feels that this was an attempt by the government to make individuals feel guilty for pollution. Look we are to blame if we demand an Ipod or a tomatoe that used chemicals to produce or fertilize/pesticide. As well as disposing of the packaging or the outdated product. We have to address these issues collectively, but man conservatives are wayyyy to blocked to understand this.

[Uncle Joe]

7. I bought my first Time Magazine in years yesterday,

because of this article, I have not finished reading it yet, but I did notice Time's solution was to give corporations tax breaks so they could develop new technologies. Who would have thought that?

[gasperc]

8. tax breaks, always god damn tax breaks

how about they get a tax break when they put something into production instead of milking the system for a fucking research tax break and never ever put anything useful to market

[Jack Rabbit]

9. The wealthy have enough tax breaks

EDITED for typing and clarity

They don't need another one.

If they can't develop green energy with their resources and existing tax breaks, it should become a government project like the TVA.

[Uncle Joe]

10. That sounds like a good idea Jack Rabbit.

I think a problem of this magnitude will require revolutionary thinking as to what the government should do. It sickens me to think the same corporations that lied, stalled, and obfuscated the issue and then slandered the very leaders that were doing their very best to save the planet now want to be rewarded. It may come down in the long run to changes in the tax code to encourage conservation and good environmental stewardship, but I found this suggestion by Time in their first acknowledgment of the impending dangers of global warming to give corporations more tax breaks tested my gag reflex.

[Dudley_DUright]

4. Thanks for taking over the Molly posting duties today JR

I was busy with many other things today and it slipped my mind until now. This is a really good one on global warming. Another three years of BushCo denial before we can even start a national response. In the mean time, start replacing those lightbulbs (I have at my house).

[Jack Rabbit]

5. . . . or start putting those sandbags up in Florida and California

Will the Frat Boy be willing to put his finger in the dike?

[Dudley_DUright]

11. I live about 25 miles from the coast of FL and about 30 ft above sea level

I might be owning beach-front property sooner than I expected. :-(

[Jack Rabbit]

12. Wouldn't all of Florida be innundated?

I don't think there's a lot of high ground in the state.

I live in the Sacramento Valley, which might become an inland sea.

[Dudley_DUright]

13. Here is a FL map that shows coastline for 1m, 2m, ... up to 6m

sea level rise from the University of Arizona (click button and scroll down and hit refresh on lower right).

http://geongrid.geo.arizona.edu/arcims/website/slr30mfl/viewer.htm

[Jack Rabbit]

14. Bye, bye, Miami. So long, Lauterdale. Farewll, Key West

Scary.

[Dudley_DUright]

15. Pretty much all of South Florida is toast with even a small rise

in sea level. Very, very scary.

[Jack Rabbit]

16. Very soggy toast, it looks like

!!