The hot topic these days in blogs is that of the climate change persuasion….everyone is predicting and debating the end times for the planet….but where was all this concerned 10 years ago….5 years ago….even last year?
‘Eco-Commie’?
WTF?
I will explain that term shortly….but first….
After Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast I lost most of my saved earlier work but it was whisked away by the storm until the other day when I found a plastic bin that had been saved that I had forgotten about and in this bin were some writings I did on the environment and such.
Now for the Eco-Commie thing….after Vietnam I became deeply involved in the antiwar scene and by extension I also was a protester for the environment and because we were so animated some starting calling us ‘Eco-Commies’ because back in those days if you protested oil companies and other polluters you were anti-American.
I kinda liked the label to be honest.
Now to flesh out why I am writing this post…..
I have heard people ask just how did this become a problem unforeseen.
It was not unforeseen.
Back in 1977 during th early days of the Carter administration a memo was passed around.
n 1977 Star Wars hit movie theaters, New York City had a blackout that lasted 25 hours, and the Apple II personal computer went up for sale. It was also the year that a remarkable one-page memo was circulated at the very highest levels of US government.
Years before the climate crisis was part of national discourse, this memo outlined what was known – and feared – about the crisis at the time. It was prescient in many ways. Did anyone listen?
Did they see this coming?
“Fossil fuel combustion has increased at an exponential rate over the last 100 years. As a result, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 is now 12 percent above the pre-industrial revolution level and may grow to 1.5 to 2.0 times that level within 60 years. Because of the “greenhouse effect” of atmospheric CO2 the increased concentration will induce a global climatic warming of anywhere from 0.5 to 5°C.”
Carter signed 14 major environmental bills as he foresaw climate change coming.
Jimmy Carter Signed 14 Major Environmental Bills and Foresaw the Threat of Climate Change
I would say they were ahead of the curve.
Carter was the first world leader to recognize the coming problem.
No one was listening…..and then in 1981 with the formation of the Heritage Foundation the battle was on between facts and misinformation.
Gains made under Carter’s presidential leadership in the early 1980s might have bought the planet precious time. Instead, for the next 12 years, under Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the U.S. government would view global warming as largely unworthy of study, much less action. Then came 25 years of stop-and-start efforts under administrations of both parties, followed by a return to denial under Trump and, then, re-entry into the Paris process under President Joe Biden.
Then there was the environmental summit of 1992.
I located some of me notes from this summit…..
178 nations sent delegates to the environmental summit of 1992….it was billed as ‘coming together to save the earth’….that did not work out so well now did it?
On the agenda was forest protection,biodiversity and climate change….
On climate change the industrialized nations agreed to try and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2000….they failed miserably.
The US held out so they could force a treaty without specific levels of greenhouse gases and as usual the US never ratified the treaty….and as they say….here we are today scorching and sweating our asses off.
Some in the US have tried numerous times to head off the coming doom but each time the government did what it does best kick the can down the road and that has lead us to where we are today.
Every administration has issued this attempt or that and thanx to the silly notion of ‘bi-partisanship’ nothing has been done….and every year the situation got worse and worse until….BANG! Here we are today with dire results of all that inaction.
For instance we just lived through the hottest month on record and yet BP made $2.6 billion in profit….so are they doing their part to help the situation…..NOT a chance!
The people can also shoulder some of the blame for they have ignored the warnings and in turn have let the government do little to nothing…..and once again….BANG! Here we are today sweating our asses off.
If only someone had taken us ‘eco-commies’ seriously we might be talking about some other problem.
There you are the history of inaction and the results of an uncaring people.
Maybe you should have listened when you had the chance.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 