Denial in high places
is spawning some head-exploding political behavior
Hubris.
Chutzpah. Stugots. Cojones. Those four words are approximate synonyms, in
English, Yiddish, and crude multinational slang, for brash action, possibly
flying in the face of facts or logic.
With
climate denial ensconced in the White House, political opportunism and brazen
hypocrisy are taking root.
Recently,
Texas, a proud sub-nation that usually takes a dim view of a free-spending,
strong federal government, asked the Army Corps of Engineers for $12 billion in
aid for what it calls a "coastal spine" – a 60-mile network of
seawalls, floodgates and other coastal defenses.
Harvey
and other storms have underscored the need to upgrade the state's patchwork
defenses against the specter of rising seas and more frequent storms.
Texas
officials made it clear that while they cared about the entire coastline,
the main focus of coastal protection would
be the dozens of refineries, petrochemical plants, and other oil facilities
lining the Gulf Coast from Port Arthur to the Houston Ship Channel. Keeping the
oil flowing would be a key goal of national security.
It
was as if Big Oil's culpability in raising sea levels and intensifying storms
was never considered.
Big
Oil and the Lone Star State may have drawn some inspiration from the proprietor
of the Doonbeg Golf Resort in County Clare, Ireland.
In 2016, Doonbeg petitioned the County Council for a permit to build two seawalls to protect the seaside course from the anticipated impacts of sea level rise and increased storms. The application specifically linked those impacts to climate change.
In 2016, Doonbeg petitioned the County Council for a permit to build two seawalls to protect the seaside course from the anticipated impacts of sea level rise and increased storms. The application specifically linked those impacts to climate change.
Said
proprietor is the World's Most Powerful Climate Denier, President Donald J.
Trump. The County Council granted the permit. So not just one, but two, walls
are being built in Scotland, thanks to climate cojones.
Climate
change brings more frequent and intense political flip-flops
As
Massachusetts Governor in the early 2000's, Mitt Romney cut a distinctive
profile as a Republican climate activist. He created a climate action plan for
the Bay State that may have been the most progressive in the nation.
One
of his top environmental staffers was Gina McCarthy, who would go on to become
a top target of Republican bile as Obama's EPA administrator.
But
by the time Romney challenged Barack Obama for the presidency, he expressed
grave doubts about climate change, even making fun of Obama's climate
concerns.
Fast-forward
to 2018: After several years of political hibernation, Romney re-emerges as a
Senate candidate in Utah. During a brutal wildfire year in the American
West, he's crooning a climate tune once
more.
White
House no longer Hap-less
During
a week when Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearings and
"treason" (Trump's gentle label) among senior White House staff
dominated Washington headlines, a go-to scientist for climate deniers was smuggled onto Team Trump.
William
Happer, a retired Princeton physicist with no direct experience in climate
science, once compared the Paris Climate Accord to Neville Chamberlain's
capitulation to Hitler.
Happer
is now a senior director for the National Security Council, in charge of
evaluating new technologies.
In
addition to hubris, chutzpah, stugots and cojones, perhaps we should add
"reckless" and "clueless."