I watched a really interesting episode of the Fifth Estate last night, titled the Denial Machine. It profiled the stance of both the US and Canadian governments on the issue of global warming. I’ve only recently started taking more of an interest in politics at all, and the whole “issue” of climate change has stood out to me as one of the more high-profile debates.
I’ve been struggling to sort through all the spoonfed media crap to get to the heart of the matter and so my opinion on the subject isn’t quite solidified yet. I’ve found it particularly difficult in this case because for the first time that I’m aware of, I feel like there’s a very deliberate effort to cloud/twist/manipulate the facts behind this whole thing. This isn’t to say that I’ve never felt misled by the government or the media, but in previous instances I’ve found it easy (at least in my mind) to decide what to believe. Now, for the first time in my life, I feel personally betrayed as a citizen of the earth. This is after all a global problem.
Despite this doubt and confusion, or maybe because of it, my research so far has led me to a few personal conclusions that I feel quite confident about:
- Whether I believe the spin or the science, the fact is that pollution is getting worse and worse. It appears that steps, possibly drastic, need to be taken to curb this. You can smell it in the air, taste it in the water, and see its effects on the environment first hand. As far as I’m concerned, this doesn’t require any more debate, it requires action. Part of me thinks the issue ends here – placing it in the political sphere at this stage will only distort and confuse the reality.
- There’s a hell of a lot of international scientific consensus that says that we are having a significant impact on global warming:
- The IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report (2007) found that human action is “very likely” the cause of global warming right now. The report goes on to describe “very likely” as 90%+ probability.
- For the 2007 G8 Summit, the national science academies of the G8+5 nations issued the following statement:
“It is unequivocal that the climate is changing, and it is very likely that this is predominantly caused by the increasing human interference with the atmosphere. These changes will transform the environmental conditions on Earth unless counter-measures are taken.”
- The list goes on…
- Many of the global warming skeptics are total sleazebags. Featured in the Fifth Estate report were Fred Singer – who has received sizable donations from Exxon during this debate and who took money from Big Tobacco in the early 90s while telling people that the link between lung cancer and cigarettes was “junk science” – and our very own Tim Ball whose qualifications are dubious to say the least (he holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Geography). I’d heard of both of these guys before and was less than surprised to see them in this show. I’m not against skepticism here, but these guys come across so badly it’s not even funny and it really hurts the other side of the entire argument. Indeed, from what I’ve been able to dig up, these two “experts” have barely published 4 papers between the two of them in over a decade. I guess their energy industry-backed PR campaign has kept them quite busy.
- What’s the point in fighting this? Why shouldn’t we take steps to lower emmision of toxic chemicals into the atmosphere? Why shouldn’t we shift our economy so that it is more sustainable? Granted, this is by no means easy and will more than likely involve sacrifice (or at least change of habit) for everyone, but I’d rather suck it up now than deal with the consequences of a wasteful and pollutant economy later. This concept alone is clear to me: we don’t really have a choice, we have to clean it up if we’d like to continue living on this planet for any prolonged amount of time. So, why not do any of this? Why don’t you ask these guys or this guy, or even this guy.
I guess the last two points above really drive the point home for me. In all that I’ve read or heard, it appears that people like Ball and Singer have their own agendas. They clearly avoid questions, they get defensive, they keep the sources of their funding secret, etc. How can they pretend to be objective when they can barely wipe the shit-eating grins off their faces when giving interviews? It’s infuriating. And if the only argument is money, I don’t think it should be an argument at all. The politicians shouldn’t be debating whether global warming is an issue, they should be figuring out how the hell we’re going to stop contributing to it in a way that won’t completely obliterate our economies. Ultimately, you have to ask whether saving money for some of the world’s richest corporations is better for the planet than mitigating our impact on the environment at whatever cost necessary.
Anyway, it turns out that the whole show is available on Youtube in 4 parts. So don’t take my word for it, don’t even take the Fifth Estate’s word for it. Read, watch, learn. Educate yourself on issues that are important to you. Use common sense, don’t just listen to what people say, but try to understand why they are saying it, what their motivations are. And if something just doesn’t sit well for you, it’s probably for a good reason…
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
