The
hypocrisy and cluelessness of our national COVID-19 response mirrors our
failures on climate change.
Bill
Cosby was America's Dad. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 9,000 in
an economic swoon. And a campaign based on "Hope and Change" swept
America.
Well,
I guess we got the "Change" part.
In
October of that year, veteran CBS correspondent Bob Schieffer did something
that hasn't been repeated since. He asked the two presidential candidates a
question about climate change.
Schieffer botched the question, using
the plumbing and heating phrase "climate control" instead of climate
change.
After
politely correcting him, Senator John McCain gave a more thoughtful and direct
answer than the man who beat him a few weeks later, Senator Barack Obama.
This
year, will increased political interest in climate change be overwhelmed by the
tsunami of news from coronavirus, the economy, and the wackadoodle behavior of
the incumbent president and his entourage?
To anyone who follows climate politics, this ought to sound familiar.
The
potential silver lining in this toxic cloud of anti-science may be that the
whole phenomenon is in plain view for all to see: the thinly-veiled attacks on
virology rock star Anthony Fauci; the inane smartphone videos of individuals
flying into a rage because retailers like Home Depot require them to wear a
mask; the nihilistic "COVID parties" in which attendees try (and
sometimes succeed) to catch this happiest of diseases; and of course, the
lethal antics of the World's Most Powerful Denier as he presses to open
schools, pimps a dubious cure like hydroxychloroquine, and runs victory laps as
the casualty tolls rise.
All
of this denial, delusion and hypocrisy is not a new tactic. Those who deny or
downplay the undeniable damage wrought by coronavirus can draw inspiration from
climate deniers.
The
American Petroleum Institute, the lobbying powerhouse of the oil and gas
industry, is flooding cable, broadcast and online ad space with bizarrely
self-congratulatory spots on its "clean energy" leadership.
And lest we forget, in 2016, a pre-presidential Donald Trump cited "climate change and its effects" as the reason for building a seawall at his organization's Irish golf resort (Ireland said no).
And lest we forget, in 2016, a pre-presidential Donald Trump cited "climate change and its effects" as the reason for building a seawall at his organization's Irish golf resort (Ireland said no).
More
telling is the absolute failure of our leaders to prepare for a pandemic despite clear warnings that
we were overdue for one.
The
same clear warnings on rising seas and surface temperatures and irreversible
impacts on both our economy and environment have been out there for decades.
There's
not much point in contrasting the climate-environment policies of the two
presidential candidates. But if you must, Biden gave a sweeping speech on Tuesday on
his $2 trillion plan to battle climate change.
The
following day, Trump delivered an equally ambitious vision to rebuild American
infrastructure by dismantling the so-called
"Magna Carta" of environmental law, the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA is the 1970 law requiring environmental
impact statements for major development projects.
Neither
received much national attention, since we're still hip-deep in coronavirus
cases and corpses. There will be time to turn our attention to all that later,
after President Trump's multiple assurances that the coronavirus will
just "go away."
Unless
it doesn't and those meddlesome scientists are right again.
And,
while we need a lot more than one climate question at a presidential debate,
the sad truth is that such a question would still, at this late date, be a
breakthrough.
Peter
Dykstra is our weekend editor and columnist.
His
views do not necessarily represent those of Environmental Health News, The
Daily Climate or publisher, Environmental Health Sciences.
Contact
him at pdykstra@ehn.org or on Twitter at @Pdykstra.