An inconvenient lie
I wouldn’t be surprised if the 118th United States Congress, scheduled to meet from January 3, 2023, to January 3, 2025, will be best remembered for squandering time we haven’t got. Certainly in the House of Representatives, time that could be devoted to promoting legislation to encourage renewable and carbon neutral solutions to energy production will be stalled for at least another two years.
The only issues Republicans are interested in right now are persecuting the President’s son without evidence, impeaching the President without evidence, investigating the “wrongdoings” of the January 6 Committee without evidence, and finding more and better ways to make their paymasters richer. Serving the interests of the planet and the American people are far, far from their minds.
How soon everyone forgets about the huge “caravans of illegal aliens” allegedly marching on the border from Central America in the run up to the 2018 midterms. Perhaps you recall that the then so-called president of the United States decided to send America’s military to the U.S./Mexican border in strength. No? The whole thing was forgotten and the troops were withdrawn soon after we retook the House of Representatives.
The “march of the rapists and criminals on America’s southern border” was a flagrant hoax played on the American people — and it worked, more or less. No one got sufficiently outraged by the hypocrisy of the whole thing because Trump was screwing up on a daily basis and most of us were distracted by that.
Distractions appear to be still working, too. Thanks to many distractions most people remain fairly nonchalant about the biggest issue of our time: global warming. I make a point to write about climate change at least once or twice a month and, if the number of comments are any indication of popularity or interest in any article, my global warming articles are the most anaemic, in the comment department anyway.
Why aren’t more people interested in this imminent threat to our existence? I’m not sure. Perhaps people aren’t as interested in climate change as they ought to be because it’s not affecting them right now, and there are enough lies about it to suggest that if they keep going the way they are going the whole problem will take care of itself. That might be true. Some person or collective of genius might find a technological solution. But to gamble our very existence on such pie-in-the-sky pipe dreams seems incredibly reckless to me.
Whatever is behind it, the notion that everything will be fine and we have more important issues to worry about is an inconvenient lie, a lie that we may one day live to bitterly regret. There isn’t anything more important than preserving our only home. The notion that we can transform Mars into a habitable paradise of human salvation is stupid if we can’t save the paradise we already have.
Much of what we as a nation and society of men and women think is heavily influenced by interests inimical to our existence. Those interests are inculcated by Big Oil. They spend millions, possibly billions, hiding the truth from us and promoting lies. They do it because they are not satisfied by their already breathtaking profits. I cannot think of a greater evil, one so great that the word “evil” is rendered inadequate to describe it.
Seventy one percent of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are caused by only 100 companies worldwide. Those companies pay Republicans and other groups in other countries to protect their interests with bribes that are pitifully small. The great tragedy to all this is many of you are probably learning this for the first time. Not only should this be known but it should be repeated endlessly by the mainstream media. It is not.
It’s a chicken and egg problem to be sure. The MSM will report what interests us. If we remain indifferent to global warming then so will they. Meanwhile people who try to pick up the slack, people like Greta Thunberg and groups like Extinction Rebellion are vilified and condemned. It’s insane, really.
What is the solution? I don’t know. But that doesn’t mean I will give up. That doesn’t mean we should give up. Because if no one takes responsibility then no one will take responsibility. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.