An Appeal to Reason
An Environmental Studies Undergrad’s Frustrated Rant
The capitalist system works because it has mechanisms built into it to correct market failures, and to encourage both technological advancement and the availability of goods to the masses. Any company that has poor business practice will tank because of lack of consumer confidence.
However, this idea assumes that the consumer base is informed and educated about the ramifications, effects, and externalities of the production of a product from the cradle to the grave.
Let me tell you, when it comes to the process that gets us the shit we buy, we’re all ignorant. Go ahead and pick up your cell phone or your mouse or whatever it is in front of you that’s man made. Do you know where the materials that made it came from? Do you know what’s going to happen to it when you’re done with it? This ignorance means market failures, specifically regarding environmentalism.
Now we come to why I’m writing: The American people are in denial about the most pressing issues that has faced our species. A lifetime of Hollywood movies and an American consumerist ethos has led us to turn our backs on Global Climate Change.
I came across an article on Digg today about the conspiracy theory that is Global Warming. I’ll link it to you, only because I impel you to bury it.
Digg.com: "Even Left Now Laughing at Global Warming"
For an added laugh, go through the comments section. These people are convinced they’re being lied to by a vast scientific conspiracy. What makes this so ironic is the fact that the Scientific Community is probably the least likely institution in history to lend itself to the prospect of corruption and conspiracy.
The article begins by stating that Global Warming, which it infers is the idea that the globe is going to boil over in the near future, is false, and it cites three examples of extraordinarily cold weather in various parts of the world as examples.
“ - Nearly four inches of snow blanketed the United Arab Emirates' Jebel Jais region for just the second time in recorded history on Jan. 24. Citizens were speechless. The local dialect has no word for snowfall.
- Dutchmen on ice skates sped past windmills as canals in Holland froze in mid-January for the first time since 1997. Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop, who inhabits a renovated 17th Century windmill, stumbled on the ice and fractured his wrist.
- January saw northern Minnesota's temperatures plunge to 38 below zero, forcing ski-resort closures. A Frazee, Minnesota dog-sled race was cancelled, due to excessive snow. Snow whitened Surf City, North Carolina's beaches. Days ago, ice glazed Florida's citrus groves.”
This frustrates me as an informed individual. First of all, the proper terminology is Climate Change, not Global Warming. The reason this distinction is important is because, as a whole, the global temperature is predicted by the International Panel on Climate Change to rise somewhere between 2.4 and 6.4 degrees centigrade. [source]
This will not cause the earth to boil over. In fact, many people would probably find this temperature increase pleasurable. But Climate Change is not about us. It’s about the global ecosystem. This temperature increase will throw local climates, which rest upon the delicate relationship between the oceans, the atmosphere, and the forests, into disarray. This will lead to things like, oh, I don’t know, snowfall in Dubai?
The erratically cold weather patterns across the globe are not an indication that Global Warming is false, they are an indication that Climate Change is very, very real.
What gets me so worked up is that these people are convinced that Global Warming is a conspiracy theory by the left. Climate change is NOT a political issue! Climate change is a HUMAN issue.
I’m a libertarian. I believe the government that governs best is the government that can successfully govern the least while maintaining the public good. We’re not going to be very well off as a people when San Francisco has the climate in 80 years that Tijuana has today. [source] That’s going to kill the most lush redwood groves our beautiful countryside has. That means the deer will die, which means the cougars will die, and the coyotes will die, and the keystone predators that keep the system working will fail us. That saddens me, and I hope it saddens you, too.
Wake up, people. Don’t give in to your “common sense.” Give in to your pragmatism. Make up your mind when you’re confident you know the facts, because this issue has nuances that not enough people understand; nuances that opportunists can take advantage of to misrepresent the truth, appealing to your "common sense."
Snow is falling in Dubai. What lesson are we, as a people, going to take from this?
