This article describes a huge, concerted hundred-million dollar effort by wealthy American conservatives to discredit the evidence that climate change results from human activity.
But why? Doesn’t being conservative mean wanting to keep things the way they are? And wouldn’t it logically follow that conservatives would want to protect their country, its cities, its farmlands, its way of life, from the depradations of hurricanes, floods, droughts and worldwide turmoil? Self-interest might seem to explain it, but I don’t think it really does.
Revealingly, the picture at the beginning of the article shows an American conservative holding up a sign: ‘I don’t believe the liberal media.’
That’s it really, isn’t it? There’s been a category error, and this has come to be seen as a partisan political issue, when it is really a straightforward threat from the material world.
It’s as if a driverless truck was hurtling down a hill towards the town square, and someone shouted out a warning to a bunch of people who were standing there talking. But no one agreed with his political views so they all thought it best to ignore him.
‘Don’t come whining to us about runaway trucks, you liberal pinko!’