One of the sad consequences of the disastrous November elections in America is the damage the new Congress will undoubtedly do to the world’s environment.
Here’s a dispatch from the Union of Concerned Scientists that arrived in today’s mail:
Are you ready for 2011? I hope so, because boy do we have our work cut out for us! Come January, climate deniers—backed by big oil, the coal industry, and electric utilities—will descend on Congress, governors’ offices, and state legislatures across the country. Taking a page out of the tobacco industry’s playbook, they will manufacture doubt about the science of climate change and stop at nothing to protect their own interests and deep pockets by blocking efforts to reduce global warming emissions. We’re gearing up for a fight and are prepared to move forward.
This problem is not new. American industry has been polluting the earth, water and sky for generations. When I lived in Canada, I recall the acid rain that afflicted Ontario, polluting the lakes and poisoning the fish – and anyone who ate the fish.
Now, with China, India and other emerging industrial powers spewing their junk into the sky and the ocean, you would think any responsible person would be trying to figure out ways to reduce pollution, not protect the polluters. But the billionaires who profit from polluting the earth are dedicating large portions of their loot to politics and propaganda designed to keep anyone from getting in their way.
They’re engaged in a campaign to convince the world that the scientists who warn of climate change are wrong. And they are succeeding despite the overwhelming evidence all around us.
But what do they really stand to gain if they win?
You would think they have some other planet to move to after they’ve destroyed this one.
But I guess when your god is money, nothing else matters. Not your health, not your environment, not your children and grandchildren.
