Who knew fire was “woke?”
By Frank Carini / ecoRI News columnist
A few days before I left for vacation last month a longtime
ecoRI News reader sent me a link to a story with the headline “Woke DEI + Green
Nihilism = Dresden in California.” The 2,444 words that followed were worse. I
lugged it around for 10 days..webp)
Which of these concepts bother you - and why?
In the email that introduced me to the story and the
website that hosts it — a MAGA wet dream called American
Greatness — the anti-wind Rhode Islander wrote, “Some good
commentary on what has been behind it all.”
Among the reasons, according to the article, for why the Los
Angeles County wildfire tragedy occurred were:
A “woke socialist state.”
“The Los Angeles apocalypse was a multisystem,
green-woke collapse — and a disastrous reminder that when Soviet-style,
anti-meritocratic ideology permeates all aspects of modern life in California,
disaster is inevitable.”
“The California nihilist green ethos and the
left-wing politicians who run the madhouse ensured there is no effort to glean
the forests and hills of combustible fuel.”
“There is not enough water for hydrants, not
enough to deliver to Los Angeles, and when it arrives, there is too much
incompetence to know how to use it.”
Climate change isn’t to blame, the author wrote, because it
is an excuse “for arrogant incompetency and disdain for the public. And it is
not racism or homophobia to fault those who paraded and virtue signaled their
tribal identities so extraneous to their actual responsibilities for public
safety.”
It happened, he wrote, because the “left holds
supermajorities in both houses” of the California Legislature. It happened
because there isn’t a single Republican on the 15-member Los Angeles City
Council. (There are 88 cities, including Beverly Hills, Hermosa Beach, Long
Beach, and Malibu, in Los Angeles County,
and each has a mayor and a city council.)
“California is one of those rare states in which Republicans have de facto zero political power,” the author continued. “All the state media, the legacy newspapers, the Silicon Valley daily online news sites, the Bay Area-based Apple, Google, and Facebook monopolies, and the local news outlets are parrots of the woke-green mindset.”
He offered more fantastical views: “No one in the government
dares to guess about what might have caused the fires, even as they cry
‘climate change’ — as if to do so would expose their own incompetency or
confirm rumors of sporadic homeless arsonists.” (I am genuinely surprised the
author didn’t label the alleged fire starters as being Black or brown, or
perhaps transgender.)
No need to thank me for sharing this pile of quack.
Meanwhile, in the real world, new research by
an international team of climate scientists documents a surge of global warming
during the past 15 years that risks shutting down a key ocean current by 2050.
The researchers wrote that this increased rate of warming
will intensify already-deadly heat waves, worsen both drought and flooding
extremes, and speed up the spread of deadly diseases associated with warmer
temperatures.
In 2024, global surface temperature was 2.32 degrees
Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. This ranks as the highest global temperature in the
period of 1850-2024, beating the next warmest year (2023) by 0.18 degrees. The
10 warmest years since 1850 have all occurred in the past decade.
But back in the MAGA bubble, Republicans on a subcommittee
of the House Judiciary Committee hosted a Feb. 6 hearing entitled
“California Fires and the Consequences of Overregulation.” The hearing was
nothing more than an attempt to spin the impacts that burning fossil fuels has
on billion-dollar disasters and human and wildlife health.
The fossil fuel industry and its government jesters have
long been working to deny or at least downplay the reality of the climate
crisis. Now, after spending $445 million to
sway the 2024 elections, the industry has gained unprecedented influence over
Elon Musk’s federal government.
Just a few weeks into the new regime, the Senate has
confirmed four industry allies to lead some of the nation’s largest
environmental and energy agencies.
Doug Burgum, Secretary, Department of the Interior: A
billionaire former software executive and real estate developer who served as
North Dakota’s 33rd governor. During his two terms as governor, North
Dakota sued the
Department of the Interior at least five times, attempting to tear up rules
that govern federal lands in that state and across the country. He is a close
ally of the fossil fuel industry, and helped organize a Mar-a-Lago event where
the resident criminal solicited $1
billion in campaign donations from oil and gas executives.
The Mad Hatter administration wants to open up more public
land to fossil fuel extraction,
so on his first day in office, Burgum issued a
seven-page directive weakening protections for national monuments, migratory
birds, and endangered and threatened species to further fossil fuel
development.
Sean Duffy, Secretary, Department of Transportation:
The former reality TV celebrity, Fox Business host, Republican congressman from
Wisconsin, and lobbyist is a climate change denier who has taken hundreds of
thousands of dollars from the fossil fuel industry. Among his first acts was to
rescind “woke DEI policies.” The father of nine also wants to prioritize transportation
projects that “give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates
higher than the national average.” Seventeen of the 20 states with highest
fertility rates voted for the Mad Hatter.
Chris Wright, Secretary, Department of Energy: The
chief executive of the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) company Liberty Energy
has no government experience. Putting a climate change denier and fossil fuel
executive in charge of energy highlights the “pay-to-play” nature of the
president’s Cabinet.
Lee Zeldin, Administrator, Environmental Protect Agency:
Has a history of fossil fuel fealty, voting against clean air and water
legislation dozens of times as a U.S. representative from Long Island. In his
new role, he said he wants to make the United States the artificial
intelligence capital of the world. Only in the Land of the Lost would the EPA
be involved in such a crusade.
The pick for the agency’s No. 2, David Fotouhi,
recently challenged a ban on cancer-causing asbestos. He also played a key role
in rolling back climate regulations and water protections while serving as an
EPA lawyer during the Mad Hatter’s first orgy.
On his first day back in his return to the Oval Office, the
MAGA King pledged to advance the production and export of fossil fuels and
challenge initiatives to expand the use of electric vehicles. He
immediately ordered federal
agencies to remove or downgrade mentions of climate change, with the websites
of several major departments pulling down references to anything related to the
climate crisis.
The Mad King and his stooges in Congress are working
to repeal Biden
administration rules that require all of the country’s lead pipes to be
replaced over the next 13 years and that lower the limit on lead in drinking
water. The insurrectionists are also working to kill a recently implemented ban
on trichloroethylene, a
compound that is among the most toxic and common water pollutants. It has been
linked to cancer and nervous system and kidney damage.
The Mad King has also launched an
offensive against renewable energy, with Burgum’s Department of Interior
temporarily suspending all renewable energy development on federal land. He has
signed an executive order that temporarily halts offshore wind energy lease
sales in federal waters and pauses approvals, permits, and loans for both
offshore and onshore wind.
Americans for Prosperity, the political arm of the
right-wing network formed by fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch, has launched a
multimillion-dollar campaign backing the Mad King’s plans to extend tax cuts
for the wealthy and roll back federal regulations. The initiative also calls
for even bolder tax cuts for corporations — a move that would directly benefit
Koch Industries, the energy and chemicals giant from which most of Americans
for Prosperity’s funding derives.
The climate crisis, wildfires, the loss of flora and fauna,
pollution, and waning public health aren’t being caused by wokeness,
progressives, immigrants, renewable energy, and diversity, equity, and
inclusion.
The problem lies with the relentless burning of fossil
fuels, a ruthless quest for power, and boundless greed. Dismantle the Federal
Emergency Management Agency so the Mad King alone can decide who is helped and
who is punished.
While the nation simultaneously catches fire and floods,
inequality grows, and the price off eggs increase, the Mad King instructs the
Federal Emergency Management Agency to cease calling undocumented immigrants
“migrants” and instead call them “aliens.” He has directed federal employees to
replace “gender” with “sex.”
The Mad King has also promised on
social media to end “the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t
work. BACK TO PLASTIC!” He plans to end
Biden-era standards for light bulbs that accelerated the adoption of LED
lighting. BACK TO INCANDESCENT!
Pure madness. Howler monkeys hurling feces.
Note: More than half of Senate Democrats (26), including
Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, voted
for Burgum; 24 Democrats,
including Whitehouse, voted for Duffy; eight
Democrats, none from southern New England, voted for Wright; three
Democrats, none from southern New England, voted for Zeldin.
Frank Carini can be reached at frank@ecori.org. His opinions don’t reflect those of ecoRI News.
