https://www.drillednews.com/post/fred-singer-obituary-climate-denier
Today there’s a generation of young people coming into adulthood completely pissed off and frightened (for good cause) that because of people like Singer, we have done next to nothing to halt global warming. It’s true that others who are still alive have also done horrible things to protect the fossil fuel industry. But having studied Singer closely for years, I know that he did this not just for a paycheck. He did it with wild abandon and joy, and delighted in his power to frighten and cow those who tried to point out that he was wrong.
Since the topic of “do your own part first or you have no standing to agitate for systemic change, you hypocrites” has come up on the BBS recently…
Further evidence that this attitude is not rooted in reality:
Keep in mind that getting to this point in individual action has required all but shutting down the economy and putting millions of people out of work. It is impossible to reach the goals we must attain without enforcing systemic change that doesn’t critically wound the lower classes.
This is excellent, but I’m out of likes for a few more minutes.
Funny how people who say that have no respect for Greta Thunberg’s standing on the issue…
I really should read some of kim stanley robinson’s fiction, though i’ve read his non-fiction pieces before but always leave it to him to write some optimistic realism. There’s a nice companion piece to this article written by cory - https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/02/rewriting-our-imaginations/#ksr
No, not that kind of energy!! You know it’s bad when the right wing tries to paint investment bankers as “ecofreaks” and “left wing economy haters!”
(Hope I’m not.copying anybody, I can’t remember where I first saw it.)
But but but, I thought green was good? (/s)
This is the obvious thread for the following, but it would also fit in various political and capitalism threads.
As he points out, the problem isn’t merely local governments not being willing to increase taxes to pay for necessary infrastructure – although of course that’s an issue too – it’s that unlike other forms of infrastructure, a significant percentage of dams in the U.S. are privately-owned, and there’s no way to enforce regulations on them (oh, the horror of regulating capitalists!)…PLUS, even the ones that are rated satisfactory or fair are getting washed out by the ‘once in a millennium’ storms that now rip through our country multiple times in a season. Gosh, I wonder why we’re getting such extreme weather these days?
