Working Together

THERE IS AT LEAST ONE ORGANIZATION in America, and maybe more, dedicated to the proposition that we can and should all work together to fight climate change. Bipartisan action to reverse climate change, Democrats and Republicans, progressives and oncservatives, working together. Its a beautiful thought. But is it realistic? What percentage of conservative Republicans even believe in climate change? How many of them are willing to accept the reality that human beings are causing climate change, an that if something isn't done about it, disaster looms? Most conservatives are climate change deniers, are they not? What ideas can conservatives contribute to fighting something they do not believe exists? Many of them tout the value of fossil fuels, and denigrate both wind and solar energy, for spurious reasons. Progressives should reply that wind and solar are competing in the free market against fossil fuels, and winning. Republicans espous the virtues of capitalism and the free market; do not use the government to pick winners. Fair enough. Every year wind energy and solar energy are gaining a larger share of the consumer energy market. Since we need to convert entirely to sustainable fuels, why not encourage this transition with not only our consumer choices, but with cooperation between government and siness and industry, to ensure a survivable future for all life on Earth, including us. There is an ad for a bipartisan climate change project on Facebook,which I have seen several times. I hit the "like" button and the "share" button every time, to try to help promote this project. I read some of the comments people typed in below the ad. Many of them are quite alarming, reflecting a very harmful, unproductive attitude about climate change, and, even worse, a very common attitude among a high percentage of the American population. One comment merely said "climate change is a hoax". There were many such comments, using slightely different words to express the same false notion; that climate change is nothing but a false conspiracy theory,a hoax perpetrated by bkusiness interests and big government politicians who want to use a contrived emergency to give mor power to the government, crazy as it sounds. There are no longer any excuses for failing to comperhend the dire reality of human made climate change, by grasping the most basic laws of chemistry. The D.O.D. has for decades considered climate change to be the greatest threat to American national security. Climate deniers are, in essence, refusing to defend the country against its deadliest enemy; what kind of patriotism is that? One alarmingly articulate dude typed in a long paragraph praising the beauty of climate change, how global warming has transformed the world by turning desolate, cold regions warm, green, and verdant, improved agriculture, made the whole planet more pleasant and temmperate! Why would we wish to return to a mini ice age? This argument is frightening; it no denial here. It acknowledges climate change, but argues in favor of it! The one glaring fact about this ad for bipartisan action on the climate, it contans no actual suggestions for action, nothing. It is only a petition, asking people online to sign in order to put pressure on political leaders to begin to take bipartisan action, whatever that might possibly entail. At some point before the greenhouse effect turns the earth into another Venus, we'll stop pretending that climate change does not exist, or stop enjoyng it. At first climate deniers refused to believe in climate change. Then, they began to accept it, but claimed that it was not caused by human activity, but rather, by nature. We very definitely want everybody to believe in and help fight climate change, but we sure as hell don't want the crazy bastards to decide that they like it, and are happy to live with it.