Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/29/branko-marcetic.html
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Nonsense equivalence. The dems might not be doing enough, but the republicans are doing far worse than ‘nothing’.
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Dems are taking action in Virginia:
“The House Commerce and Labor Committee voted 9-7 on Wednesday in favor of HB 1635, which would place a moratorium effective Jan. 1, 2021, on issuing permits for electrical generating facilities that use fossil fuels such as coal or natural gas. The moratorium also would apply to pipelines, refineries and other facilities associated with fossil fuels.”
Take a WILD guess on who’s party the dissenting seven belonged to.
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Well, “Climate Deniers” still seems fair. They are acting as if they are in denial about the true threat. But yes, this is only “fair” if you promote Republicans to something like Climate Saboteurs or Scorched-Earth Mammonites or something
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Until we get $$ out of politics, this isn’t going to change.
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Like my Gram used to say, don’t talk about it, BE about it.
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This is exactly how it ought to be framed IMO. Denial is definitely what the establishment Dems have been doing. Republicans are people who would see most of the country die in a war to protect an industry that will kill us all in a few generations because it would make them a lot of money this year. That’s not denial. That’s the thing the denial is protecting those Dems from admitting. They’re shaking hands with that kind of thought because bipartisan blah blah blah…
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The basic problem with the analogy here is that Climate Change is not like a comet. It’s not something that either hits or it doesn’t. It’s actually something that will definitely hit but whose severity can be mitigated and within all plausible futures the more we do to mitigate it, the better. So there’s a real distinction between denial that it’s a real problem, and not sufficiently appreciating the scale of the issue.
Marcetic erases that distinction, to argue as if merely acknowledging that full carbon neutrality by 2030 might not be possible is the same as the Republican approach of completely ignoring carbon emission or purposefully increasing it to own the libs. The important thing for activism is to get people to do more. This kind of ‘do it our way or you must be secretly pro-global warming’ is cynical point scoring to make yourself feel superior.
I totally agree that dems (and the majority of the freaking world!) are deeply in denial about climate change. But being a climate denier is a thing with a meaning here. It’s basically a job title for some folks.
(Indeed many climate deniers are not, in fact, personally in denial about climate change. They totally know it’s gonna happen, but they are content to make money persuading people it isn’t to make money, because they expect to be dead or in a bunker when it happens.)
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THREAD. (Bottom line - we like our lives, and we’re loss-aversive, as we currently define loss.)
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In terms of the numbers, there is no distinction to erase. The policies the establishment dems are promoting might, if fully implemented, shave off a few percent of our carbon emissions, which is effectively the same as nothing. We need massive investment in renewables and nuclear power, immediately, to even be able to mitigate the worst it the disaster.
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The R’s and D’s are the same on militarism, corporatism and most other issues. They only differ in style and social/religious issues. Republicans in rainbow pantsuits.
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I still wouldn’t characterize it as “denial.” They are aware of the situation and simply choosing to do nothing about it. If the neighbor’s house is on fire and I watch it burn instead of calling 911 it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m in denial about the existence of the fire, it just means I’m so incredibly lazy that even self-preservation isn’t a big enough motivator to prompt me into action.
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I’ll take ‘What is the Overton Window’ thanks Alex.
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So you are an advocate of an egalitarian shuffling of deck chairs on the Titanic?
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Tweet 8 is where she gets to it. This is also the reason a lot of establishment Dems are so reluctant to take real action. Sometimes I think if scientists were succesful in making this clear…
…that we’d suddenly see more action.
The conservative denialists know this, I suspect. In these discussions they always pander to the Know-Nothing 27% – many of whom have never flown on a plane in their lives – by painting liberals and progressives who do fly as hypocritical “Coastal Elites” (especially celebrities like Al Gore or Leonardo Dicaprio).
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The younger generation is just waiting for
the old pols to die off, already.
They know the planet is dying and can’t wait to be In Charge and save it.
They (you?) are the Great Hope .
I apologise to the younger folks who are left to deal with this mess and clean it up
Sincerely,
Tree-hugging liberal recycler.
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I am actually working in climate mitigation and would prefer my research budget not be cancelled.
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To quote from an old post:
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And I would prefer that “carbon-neutral by a decade and a half” not be paraded as anything remotely like a solution to climate instability by liberals who cannot fathom carbon negative solutions.
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