Why Global Warming focus is hurting the environmentalism debate
by Slamfu
“You can’t reason someone out of something they were never reasoned into” – Jonathan Swift
Whenever I see a piece on environmental issues these days, it seems to me that it is always couched in terms of CO2 emissions and Global Warming only. GW is a major issue, and something I think the majority of sane people (including me) want to take action on. But those who oppose taking action have come up with a pretty solid game plan to hold things up, namely to just say “Nuh uh”. It’s been amazingly effective here in the good ole USA, and like so many other topics, the Democrats and Left swallow the hook and let the Conservatives dictate the argument. At this point the data is there, and those who don’t agree with it are doing so out of sheer stubbornness, clinging to their ideology. So why are we still trying to argue the point when it’s clear the only evidence in support of Global Warming some people will accept is a completely submerged Florida? Once the conservatives create this form of reasonable doubt in people’s minds, they seem to be able to pretty much shut down any environmental regulation or laws. When juxtaposed with some random numbers on how much it will cost to implement, along with some flimsy tale on how many jobs it will cost, spending that money to fix something that might not be a real things seems to make sense to a lot of people.
There are so many other, non-Global Warming reasons to have strong environmental regulations that are being largely ignored these days. For instance we have mercury in pretty much every piece of seafood we eat. Heavy metals are in the water supply, and approximately 13,000 people a year, just in the US, die from the byproducts of Coal energy production. Companies like Freedom Industries pollute the drinking water of 300,000 West Virginians and what exactly happens to them? Or those who were supposed to be regulating them? Well, as soon as the lawsuits started piling up they filed for Chapter 11 to limit their damages. Then:
“However, according to the Charleston Gazette, a company “whose characteristics are strikingly similar to Freedom Industries,” Lexycon LLC, registered as a business with the West Virginia secretary of state about two months after Freedom Industries filed for bankruptcy. The company is registered at the same addresses and phone numbers as the former Freedom Industries, and is founded by a former Freedom executive.”
These are all tangible problems, ones that exist TODAY, not some vague time in a future that may or may not come to pass. Even the knuckleheads siding with Big Energy on GW can’t gainsay that. Why are people so focused on trying to win the environmental debate with Global Warming when clearly the GOP has a strategy to ignore and even somehow legitimized opposition to making changes, when we have so many other tangible environmental threats that can’t be ignored? The Left needs to quit trying to win that particular argument with the holdouts. I think the quote at the top from Mr. Swift needs to be sent to those trying to fix the environment, and taken to heart. They need to quit playing the game their opponents want them to play.
graphic via shutterstock.com