Vortex en Veritas

Last year I spent February in a trial in Anchorage Alaska. For the entire month of February, the temperatures in Anchorage never dropped to what they have been in Michigan for the last few weeks and foreseeable future.

Of course, one has to be careful in taking isolated weather events, such as the record-breaking low temperatures, as evidence of climate change. However, when on record-breaking storm follows another, and record-breaking droughts, record-breaking floods, etc. accumulate this rapidly, then one has to hope that the experience of these events will tip the scale on the public’s awareness of the issue. 

The truth is that many Americans have been deceived by a billion dollar plus media campaign by climate change deniers. The funding to deny reality predictably flows from corporate billionaires, such as the Koch brothers and funneled through conservative “think” tanks. If you have seen a commercial on climate change it was probably funded by some front for corporate America. They even have their own denier network in Fox Cable News.

The science verifying the fact of climate change is long settled, and after a decade of Rush Limbaugh types mocking that idea, they have shifted focus to denials of the causes of climate change. This is where the real issue has always rested, because the economics of climate change and possible solutions is what worries the billionaires. Shifting industry from oil/carbon-based fuels means a shake-up of the established order and “Big Oil” does not like it. 

I think that for most Americans, the problem of climate change is an opportunity that can’t be ignored. There is so much potential in developing the technologies to arrest or reverse climate change. For example, in Michigan’s windy Thumb area, windmills are now sprouting up and construction is beginning on infrastructure to deliver, clean, renewable energy. This means hundreds of new jobs, cleaner, less expensive energy that (at least) does not contribute to climate change.