Nero played fiddle while Rome burned, the incredible
shrinking _resident plays PNACkle while the planet
burns...
Kelpie Wilson, www.truthout.org: Canadian Environment Minister David Anderson said: "Current preoccupation is with terrorism, but in the long term climate change will outweigh terrorism as an issue for the international community. . . climate change is going to make some very fundamental changes to human existence on the planet." Anderson said that if
nothing is done to slow global warming, the
wheat-growing prairies of Canada and the Great Plains
of the United States would eventually no longer
produce enough food to support the population.
"Terrorism is unlikely to give us the strong
possibility of 500 million refugees. Climate change is
likely to give us that if it goes unchecked from
flooded areas ... in countries such as Bangladesh," he
said.
Save the Environment, Show Up for Democracy in 2004:
Defeat Bush (again!)
Global Warming -- Facing Our Fears
By Kelpie Wilson
t r u t h o u t | Statement
Thursday 06 May 2004
Addressing a meeting of environment ministers last
week, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that the
Iraq war and terrorism have overshadowed critical
environmental problems. Global warming and dwindling
natural resources are losing the world's attention as
the focus shifts to war and terror.
"However understandable that focus might be, we
cannot lose any more time or ground in the wider
struggle for human well-being. Just as we need
balanced development, so do we need a balanced
international agenda," Annan said.
In recent months, others have made similar
statements.
Canadian Environment Minister David Anderson said:
"Current preoccupation is with terrorism, but in the
long term climate change will outweigh terrorism as an
issue for the international community. . . climate
change is going to make some very fundamental changes
to human existence on the planet." Anderson said that
if nothing is done to slow global warming, the
wheat-growing prairies of Canada and the Great Plains
of the United States would eventually no longer
produce enough food to support the population.
"Terrorism is unlikely to give us the strong
possibility of 500 million refugees. Climate change is
likely to give us that if it goes unchecked from
flooded areas ... in countries such as Bangladesh," he
said.
Sir David King, science advisor to UK prime minister
Tony Blair, said climate change was the most severe
problem faced by the world. He criticized the US for a
failure of leadership: "As the world's only remaining
superpower, the United States is accustomed to leading
internationally co-ordinated action. But at present
the US Government is failing to take up the challenge
of global warming."
He was later told by the prime minister's office to
hold his tongue.
Support for Sir David's view came from Hans Blix,
the former United Nations chief weapons inspector, who
said the environmental crisis was at least as
important a threat as global terrorism. Blix is in a
unique position to be able to weigh these relative
threats. Unlike the general public he has first hand
knowledge of Iraq's WMD program and was not fooled by
the Bush administration's lies and distortions about
the Iraq threat.
Meanwhile, it is still possible to find climate
change skeptics in the American media. The product of
a few industrial think tanks like the Competitive
Enterprise Institute and the Pacific Research
Institute, their broadsides uniformly accuse
environmental advocates and scientists of "fear
mongering."
The overwhelming majority of the world's climate
scientists agree that human-caused climate change is
real, but that is not enough evidence for media hit
men like John Stossel of ABC's 2020. In a 2001 piece
still posted on his website, Stossel says: "Despite
what we hear from the media, there is no consensus
that global warming is harming the planet." Stossel
asks, "Are we scaring ourselves to death?"
Still, the flood of climate change debunking has
definitely slowed. As people around the world begin to
believe the evidence of their senses, it becomes
harder to sell the happy talk about global warming.
Our fears are becoming reality:
Western forests are dying from drought and the fire
season in the west has come earlier than ever with
officials now reporting conditions in early May like
those not formerly seen until July.
Reservoir levels are dropping and we are told that
Lake Powell may go dry and stop producing
hydro-electricity in a few short years.
Those in the middle of the country are preparing for
another summer of severe storms and tornados.
In Europe, people are bracing for more catastrophic
floods and another summer of killing heat.
In Alaska, the permafrost is melting and roads and
foundations are buckling as the ground turns to mush.
Some Pacific islands are becoming uninhabitable as
rising seas sweep across them during storms.
Around the world, declines of wildlife and the
spread of invasive pests are linked to global warming.
Since 9/11 we have seen the Bush administration use
fear to motivate the public to support an unfounded
war on Iraq. Bush told lies that convinced Americans
that Saddam Hussein supported al-Qaeda terrorists and
that he was capable of launching missiles loaded with
nuclear and biological weapons against his neighbors.
None of this has turned out to be true, but the fear
was created.
Fear is a powerful force in human affairs that,
because of our psychological makeup, is easy to
manipulate. We are taught to fear our fears, and to
suppress them as we desperately seek ways to rid
ourselves of them. When our leaders tell us we can act
quickly to eliminate a fear, we usually jump on board
without a lot of questions.
George Lakoff calls this the "Strict Father" model
of politics. Lakoff is a professor of linguistics at
the University of California, Berkeley who has written
widely on the topic of "framing." In public debate, he
says, the winning side is the side that creates the
frame that defines the terms of the debate. Today the
conservatives are winning because they have framed
that debate according to a particular model of the
family. The conservative family model is based on the
"Strict Father" who supports and protects the family.
"He does it in only one way -- by strength and
punishment. Only punishment works. Only shows of
strength work," Lakoff said in a January 15 interview
with BuzzFlash. "When you have fear in the country,
fear evokes a strict father model. It's to the
conservatives' advantage to keep people afraid, to
keep having orange alerts, to keep having
announcements that they have secret information that
there might be a bombing somewhere in the country. As
long as you keep people afraid, you reinforce the
strict father model."
Lakoff contrasts this model with the "Nurturant
Parent" family model that liberals use as a frame.
This type of family and politics focuses on bringing
out the best in everyone. It is more about joy, love,
community and progress, but it has not coped
successfully with fear. Lakoff said we need "to be
positive, to break through the fear You have to
project an image of love and warmth, and happiness and
hope. That's the first thing. You don't feed the
fear."
But when it comes to environmental issues like
global warming, our fears are real. And no one is
providing us with easy answers like sending in the
troops to oust a dictator. Instead, we are being told
not to worry about climate change, pollution and
energy shortages and to carry on with business as
usual. So we suppress our fears and they add to the
general state of fear that is then used to get us to
agree to war and destruction.
In the depths of the Great Depression, Franklin
Delano Roosevelt said to America: "Let me assert my
firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is
fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified
terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert
retreat into advance." But FDR did not ask people to
suppress their fears. He said, "only a foolish
optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment,"
and called for moral vision and a plan of action.
Unaddressed fear leads to paralysis. We still have a
chance to head off some of the worst climate change
scenarios, but we must change our attitude toward fear
and come to see it as our best ally. Where would we be
today if our ancestors did not fear the predator, the
storm, the poor harvest, and take steps to protect
themselves? We must face our fears and act, in concert
with others, in joy and love. When we can do that, we
will be free.
-------
Kelpie Wilson kelpie.wilson@truthout.org is
Truthout's environment editor. A veteran forest
protection activist and mechanical engineer, she
writes from her solar-powered cabin in the Siskiyou
Mountains of southwest Oregon.
-------
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