Does it say anything new about the subject? From what I've read so far, I would say that the answer is no. Then again, I've read as much as I can about the subject over the past thirty years, so there may not be that much that is new for me to absorb. But what I have absorbed makes me not only convinced of the seriousness of climate change as an existential threat to human life on Earth, but despairing over the inability of our political system to facilitate any level of debate over how to address the problem, and save ourselves from ourselves. For make no mistake: we are both the problem and the solution.
That climate change is both a problem rooted in the actions and inactions of the human race, and is accelerating at a rate that gives us little time to address it successfully, is beyond any doubt. But what is also beyond any doubt is the level of denialism sponsored and facilitated by the financial interests whose current modes of money-making would be threatened--in some cases, perhaps, even destroyed--by any serious effort to tackle the problem. Had these efforts not been successful to date, we could very well have solved the problem by now.
But they have been successful, in part because they've adapted to the rate at which the available evidence has been accumulating against their cause. Step 1 was to deny that there was any problem in the first place. Then, as evidence began mounting that there was a problem, they said it was too small to worry about it. Then, as the effects become too large to ignore, they conceded that there was a problem, but said it was unlikely that humans were its cause. Finally, and more recently, they have actually begun to concede that there's a problem, that humans are the cause, and that something needs to be done--but that the solution is to spur entrepreneurial activity by way of having more babies. In effect, there's nothing that the end of the world might do to us that the right combination of capitalism and social conservatism can't cure.
In plain English: anything but a big-government solution. And this is where the level of their dishonest lobbying descends to ad hominem levels. The "big government" solutions to which they object (some of which, like a carbon tax, actually have roots in conservative thinking) are, in their view, just a proxy for a socialist, one-world takeover of our country. Even though there's no evidence of this alleged conspiracy, they keep pushing it anyway. And, thanks to forty years of public policy that has put the majority of our nation's wealth in their hands, they have no reason to think that they can't keep on pushing it.
What makes this effort especially insidious is the fact that, as the articles in the Times climate issue illustrate, the financial interests fighting the efforts to solve the climate problem have known all along about every aspect of it--its causes, its likely effects, and its potential cures. Not for the smallest measurable instant has that knowledge in any way deterred them from their efforts to keep on lining their pockets by spreading ignorance and fear among everyone else. There's a simple reason for this: they've been working on ways to profit on the misery they're helping to create. For them, the changing planet simply creates new and, perhaps, more lucrative ways to exploit everyone else. And not the least of these ways is the greater likelihood that even the most basic essentials of life--air and water--will become so scarce that people will be willing to do and give anything to have them. Far from being a disaster for global capitalism, in other words, climate change will enable its takeover of the entire planet. Perhaps forever.
If you have any doubts about this, then take a look at this story from the magazine, about how the Pinkertons stand ready to be a police force for the brave new world that those who push back against climate change solutions would like us to accept. Or this story, about how they are in fact ready to profit off of the destruction of our world.
But then, take a look at this story, about how people in a small Peruvian town are using the court system to fight back against this perfidy. And understand that it is only through efforts like this that disaster for everyone--or almost everyone--can be avoided. Understand that there is no glide path out of this dilemma. Understand that, ultimately, there is no savior from the effects of climate change except for the one you see in the mirror, in mirrors all over our dying planet.
Climate is the problem, but global capitalism in its present form is the real enemy. Fight it. Today, tomorrow, and every day until we can be sure that the planet, its riches, and its opportunities are saved for everyone to enjoy. Which is why I will leave you with the closing paragraph from the lead article in the Times' climate issue:
It has become commonplace to observe that corporations behave like psychopaths. They are self-interested to the point of violence, possess a vibrant disregard for laws and social mores, have an indifference to the rights of others and fail to feel remorse. A psychopath gains a person’s trust, mimics emotions but feels nothing and passes in public for human (with a charming Twitter feed, say). The psychopath is calm, calculated, scrupulous — never more so than while plotting murder. There can be no reasoning with a psychopath; neither rational argument nor blandishment has a remote chance of success. If this indeed is the pathology that we are dealing with when it comes to the climate impasse, then we should be honest about the appropriate course of treatment. Coercion must be the remedy — exerted economically, politically and morally, preferably all at once. The psychopath respects only force.
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