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Global Warning - Jun 16, 2008 - Printable Version
- For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
by Robin Buckallew
For the last couple of years, ever since Al Gore’s movie was released, I have been witness to an endless array of dog-and-pony shows in cities and towns around the nation, each one designed to bewitch, bother, and bewilder. The word is out around the country that it is no longer acceptable to continue the same old polluting ways that have been so much a part of our history. City officials are scrambling to get on board the bandwagon of greenspeak and greenthink that have swept the country. City council chambers are ringing with green resolutions. Chamber of Commerce types are rushing to polish up their green cred. It all looks good, and people are patting themselves and each other on the back, as the wires ring with praise of all the initiatives being taken at the local level. In spite of all that, I continue to find myself shaking my head in sorrow, as it becomes increasingly evident that out of all the noise, out of all the sound and fury, very few cities have spawned innovative, visionary leaders who will lead this country forward into a greener future. In fact, what this country appears to have spawned are any number of P. T. Barnum’s, intent on holding onto their positions by slopping a coat of fresh green paint over their fossil-fuel soaked exterior. It all looks shiny, new, and green, but don’t look too closely. Many of these newly green civic leaders fairly reek of coal dust and petroleum. In the rush to be the greenest whatever, we are hearing a great deal of Orwellian double-talk, such as the oxymoronic “clean coal technology”, not to mention the incomprehensible “carbon sequestration” and “mercury capture” that sound good in the newspaper, but are mostly just obfuscatory phrases designed to make us feel better about ourselves and our hometowns. We eat it up. I hear the words and phrases pronounced and mispronounced around every water cooler, around tables in local cafés, in ballparks, and in every other place where crowds of people gather socially or professionally. Seemingly educated discussions about carbon taxes and CAFÉ standards, alternative technologies and renewable energy, net metering and solar panels take place throughout the public square. People go around calculating their carbon footprint and buying carbon offsets. We listen with bated breath as our city leaders promise us increasing commitment to renewable energy sources, and we fill our tanks with E85 so that we, too, can be part of the new green consciousness. After we secure the promises from our city councils and our state legislatures, we mostly go back home (in our newly “green” SUV fueled with so-called “green” ethanol), and go back about our business. Meanwhile, in most cities around the nation, life goes on pretty much as before, although many cities have invested in a token amount of wind energy in order to make the new green paint seem plausible. We do little to follow up on promises made or to question our city leaders about their true environmental commitment. Was P. T. Barnum right in his rather cynical assessment of the capabilities and culpabilities of the American people? Or are we simply so eager to be assured that we can live the “good” life and still be in harmony with nature that we will accept any and all manner of greenwash as long as it makes us feel good?
In every town I have lived in, and most the towns I’ve visited, I have been assured with total solemnity that this particular town, unlike others, is totally corrupt. The leaders have managed to manipulate the system, get into power, and now make the decisions of the town with regard to their own personal fortune or their own personal whim, in total disregard of the wishes of the townspeople. Each and every locality seems to sincerely believe itself to be the most corrupt locality on the face of the planet, with their political leaders uniquely powerful and manipulative. In spite of that rather unrealistic cynicism (I submit to you the proposition that only ONE town on the planet can possibly hold the title of most corrupt town on the planet), townspeople fall all over themselves to accept the assurances of the local political leaders that their new power plant will be clean, that their new Wal-Mart will be environmentally friendly, that their green consciousness is the most awesome anywhere to be found. We firmly believe that we are rushing headlong toward sustainability, with only an occasional speed bump to slow us down. Our city leaders solemnly swear that they have invested in the absolutely latest in technology that will save the planet even as we continue to mine, drill, and combust vast quantities of fossil fuels to maintain our comfortably oblivious lives; and we believe them. Why? Because we want to believe them. Because the acts of legerdemain they are presenting for us are so appealing and so entertaining, and because we are not interested in waking up from the hypnotic trance we are enjoying. Because overcoming the inertia of a consumptive society takes more effort than we are willing to put out, and we have managed to convince ourselves that the consequences are so far in the future we really don’t need to worry. Or maybe the consequences won’t occur – after all, the scientists are only 99% sure that human-induced climate change is occurring.
Who pulls the strings in your town? If you want to find out, you should put to use that old adage that was dogma in all the old detective shows. I don’t mean cherchez la femme. This has very little, if anything, to do with sex. I mean, Follow the money. Sooner or later, it all comes back to money. Who stands to gain by fossil fuels, or lose from clean energy? Who stands to gain by convincing you that Ethanol is clean, even though all the studies have shown otherwise? Who stands to gain by building new coal fired power plants, by making automobiles bigger and bigger, by shutting down railroads and bus lines? Chances are, you will find them on the board of every mainstream green organization, and you will find statements on their websites and in their public documents vouchsafing their total commitment to a clean, sustainable future. If you follow them around long enough, however, you will likely hear one of them blurt out a truth they don’t want you to know. Public statements supporting the need to do “something” about global warming or pollution may be counteracted by private statements about how humans breathe out carbon dioxide, and so it isn’t a pollutant, or how pollution is actually caused by trees, and not by those factories belching black smoke and soot into the atmosphere. Push them into a corner, and they may actually tell you that the foul smell of corporate hog farms or hazardous waste facilities is “the smell of money”.
The show that the companies and the political leaders are putting on is for our “benefit”. We are the ones they want to convince. We are the ones they want to bewitch, bother, and bewilder. They have an ace up their sleeve, and a rabbit in their hat, and they work their magic while we “ooh” and “aah”. In spite of the relative clumsiness of the obvious ace at the cuff, or the rabbit that keeps peeking out of the hat prematurely, we believe in the optical illusions they are spinning about us. We are as tied into the web of deceit and lies as they are; we are just as invested in the status quo as our civic leaders. We ask them to lie to us, so we can feel good, and they willingly oblige. It is up to us now. We must pull back the curtain, and expose the wizard. We must quit saying, “Send in the clowns. There ought to be clowns”. Don’t bother. They’re here.
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