Video: Why Fighting Climate Change Is So God-Dang Hard
| Fri Apr. 24, 2009 6:50 AM PDT
I'm watching a House of Representatives hearing on climate change legislation on c-span.org -- it is the most recent in a long string of such hearings that has incorporated the entire week. Former vice president Al Gore and former senator John Warner, a Republican who urges action on climate change, have just delivered extraordinary statements. Gore listed study after study that are already finding real, concrete effects of climate change. He supplied the assembled lawmakers with as much science as they could possibly want. The much older Warner spoke of growing up during the Great Depression and WWII, and the courage and inspiration that were required to meet the challenges of that time. He argued that fighting back climate change requires the same qualities today. Listening to these two men makes it's hard not to think a cultural shift has occurred and we're finally on our way to a real solution.
And then you stumble on something like the video below, and you realize why a solution has been and will continue to be so immensely difficult. Below is a man who does not care about Gore's science or Warner's call to duty. Below is a man who has found text in the Old Testament that says God, not man, will determine the end of the world, and because that text is infallible in his view all this business about global warming is a bunch of hokum.
That's Rep. John Shimkus. And in case it's not clear how he feels about global warming from the video, he said earlier this week, "I think [climate change legislation] is the largest assault on democracy and freedom in this country that I've ever experienced. I've lived through some tough times in Congress -- impeachment, two wars, terrorist attacks. I fear this more than all of the above activities that have happened." That's not just kind of nutty. It's dangerous.
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Comments
Questions for Rep. Shimkus
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri Apr. 24, 2009 9:17 AM PDT.
Dear Mr. Shimkus, If God is supposed to determine the end of the world, why are you trying to take the "end of the world" role out of God's hands? Why are you fighting so strongly against the good stewardship God requires of Man?
Job 12:7-10. "But ask the animals, and they will teach you; or birds of the air and they will tell you; or speak to the earth and it will teach you; or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this. In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind."
Why, Mr. Shimkus, are you ignoring the teachings of the birds of the air, the fish in the sea, and every animal, and the earth? For the hand of the Lord does this. The Lord is teaching us through these things that we are killing the world. Why do you ignore the teachings of His hand? Why do you choose instead to make man-kind God-like, to try to steal the Lord's power? Are you so arrogant as to speak for God, even though, He, in His wisdom has already spoken to us through the earth and His creation?
You should be ashamed, Sir.
I couldn't decide whether to
Submitted by Zach (not verified) on Fri Apr. 24, 2009 2:53 PM PDT.
I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry when I watched that. Neither seems to do justice to the depth of this absurdity.
According to OpenSecrets.org, Shimkus has received about $800,000 in campaign contributions from the energy industry since he's been in Congress (about 10 years).
My theory is that initially, it was easy to attack global warming on a scientific level - claiming the science is inconclusive, buying off scientists to pose as skeptics, falsifying scientific data. That strategy is losing effectiveness, as worldwide scientific consensus grows increasingly strong. The industry is now searching for alternative angles from which to discredit global warming.
In the video and in the quote, Mr. Shimkus has cleverly reframed the debate. Instead of debating whether or not global warming as real, he now frames it as a conflict between Christianity/Freedom/Democracy and climate change legislation. This argument is obviously completely lacking in intellectual and logical legitimacy, but I don't think its aimed at intellectuals.
The values his position appeals to are values that will appeal to working class, less educated populations. In our soundbite oriented, intellectually vapid media culture, there won't be much thoughtful analysis of that argument. If a member of the government or corporate press office says that climate change is anti-Christian and anti-democracy, that little clip is the only thing viewers will see. In terms of that frame, you don't want to be against Christianity, freedom, or democracy, so global climate change legislation must be bad. Obviously many will question the fallacious assumptions underlying that argument, but many wouldn't.
I don't know how much he really believes in anything he is saying and how much he is just licking the hand that feeds him.
phew!
Submitted by Gavin Hudson (not verified) on Sat Apr. 25, 2009 5:49 AM PDT.
Phew! So glad to know we don't have to worry about what our impact on the environment any more. That's a relief. /blind, unthinking belief
So the point of stumbling on
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Apr. 27, 2009 10:03 PM PDT.
So the point of stumbling on this page is to learn that not only is our country STILL full of religious nuts, it also lets us know that the climate change mafia is STILL convincing sweet old house mammys, stupid goth kids, greenpeace hippie wanna bees and obamanoids. to write blogs to help spread there propaganda.
response to "the point of stumbling on..."
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Apr. 27, 2009 10:26 PM PDT.
there is STILL "their" in our english language
God and climate change
Submitted by Colrob (not verified) on Mon Jun. 8, 2009 11:50 PM PDT.
As a Christian I find it totally incomprehensible that anyone could argue that it is God's will that through our selfish actions we condemn others to suffer. It sounds like a convenient excuse to do nothing, to continue our shameless rape of the world's resources and our selfish, uncaring attitude. Peoples' lives are already being destroyed by climate change and there are already deaths. To do nothing is complicity in genocide on a massive scale. I despair at the religious extremes in the US and hope that one day they will wake up and have a real conscience-I live in hope!
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