George Monbiot speculates on reasons for the spread of climate change denial.
There is no point in denying it: we’re losing. Climate change denial is spreading like a contagious disease.
There are some obvious answers … But there might also be a less intuitive reason, which shines a light into a fascinating corner of human psychology ..
Here they are, having weaselled themselves into a position to dig up hugely valuable resources from under our feet for a steal, only to flog them off to be burnt and dangerously pollute our only atmosphere. When we realise how dangerous it is, they use these stolen proceeds to block any attempt to mend the damage by launching a propaganda campaign and buying off politicians:
Obama’s key climate bill hit by $45m PR campaign.
And people call this democracy? These people are the highest of criminals. Forget the war on terror, what we should have is a war on fossil fuel pushers.
Pace of climate change exceeds estimates:
“We are basically looking now at a future climate that’s beyond anything we’ve considered seriously in climate model simulations,” Christopher Field, founding director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, said.
… emissions from burning fossil fuels since 2000 have largely outpaced the estimates used in the U.N. panel’s 2007 reports.
Unexpectedly large amounts of carbon dioxide are being released into the atmosphere as the result of “feedback loops” that are speeding up natural processes.
The 11th Hour is a documentary film, co-written and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, but don’t let that put you off. This is one of the best environmental documentaries I’ve seen and DiCaprio does a fine job.
Intermingled with a rousing montage of earthly images and audio, the backbone of the film is a series of interviews with over fifty politicians, scientists, and environmental activists — including Stephen Hawking and David Suzuki—who cleverly explain the complex bind we’re in, how we got here and how we might get out of it.
It’s a treasure trove of quotable dialogue, and after detailing the down right depressing situation we’re in and the obstacles we need to overcome, the most inspiring stuff comes in the last segment where we are presented not only with practical ideas and solutions for the future but with a whole new way of looking at our situation; this gem from Paul Hawken:
The great thing about the dilemma we’re in is that we get to reimagine every single thing we do. In other words there isn’t one single thing that we make or system that we have that doesn’t require a complete remake, and so there are two ways of looking at that. One is, like, oh my gosh, you know, what a big burden. The other way to look at it, which is the way I prefer, is what a great time to be born, what a great time to be alive, because this generation gets to essentially completely change this world.
If I was a filmmaker this is the film I’d like to make.
You’ve probably heard more and more lately about global climate change (or ‘global warming’) — and probably a little too late — but there’s one thing politicians really really don’t want to talk about (apart from the Greens that is) and that’s our pending little energy problem.