We all have people we care about who have not realized the basic lessons of life – how to care for themselves, for example.
Maybe a family member is addicted, strangely deaf to our loving words and best efforts. Or we know someone who takes advantage of others, acts selfishly and refuses personal responsibility. Perhaps we saw the warning signs when they were young: their excuses and falsehoods.
We learn as adults to put the ways of childhood behind us; otherwise, we burden and endanger our families and friends. It is always left to the responsible among us to do what needs to be done.
Our climate is at dire risk. We know this because our best and brightest – the NASA scientists responsible for getting our astronauts safely into space and back – tell us so in very clear language. Our military leaders say the same, as do virtually all scientists willing to withstand the test of peer review. Consensus is clear: The need for action is urgent.
But some leaders wink at us, suggesting we continue in another story. They hold back and act like they can’t hear. They model avoiding stepping up when it’s time to clean house, to do the hard work. They lay low and repeat their excuses, hoping to get away with poor behavior. Hey, it’s someone else’s problem. The dirt doesn’t exist.
Such leaders, like Rep. Scott Tipton, are false. Their corporate moneylenders benefit from our irresponsibility because we provide them cover when they destroy our natural world. They create then point to shameful fake “evidence.”
The Oregon Petition, for example, claims over 31,000 “scientists” question climate change (only 39 are climatologists). Its author, Arthur Robinson, pretended association with the indignant National Academy of Sciences (which completely discredited the petition). When asked about false signatories such as Star Wars characters, a “Spice Girls PhD” and fictitious names (I. C. EWE), Robinson said, “When we’re getting thousands of signatures, there’s no way of filtering out a fake.”
This is the best “evidence” that our false leaders have that there is still debate about climate change.
Kirby MacLaurin
Durango
