The Non-Political Post About the Presidential Challengers

These are weird times for observers of global environmental trends.  Here in America, we’ve got one political party that almost unanimously denies the warnings of climate science regarding man-made global warming, and one that almost unanimously accepts the science in virtual secrecy.

You might think that’s normal, or even healthy.  One says yes, one says no.  Call it 50/50, right?

Actually, no.  Here’s why:  As much as we love America, it’s pretty much all alone when it comes to climate denial among politicians.  I did some rough calculations this morning, and found that fourteen countries with 60% of the world’s population had 79 major political parties, and about 250 mid-majors.  Extrapolating to the rest of the world, we’ve got 132 major political parties, and around 500 including the smaller ones.

Long, long ago: McCain '08 supported carbon limits

Let's call it 500 global political parties.  How many of them do you think dismiss human-caused climate change?  Well, I couldn’t find a single one, except our very own GOP.  And I’m not alone.  Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, says that although other countries’ parties may occasionally contain pockets of climate skepticism, there is "no party-wide view like this anywhere in the world that I am aware of."

Wow!  Just to make sure we’re on the same page, that means 99.8% of all political parties in the world are looking at American primary debates and wondering: What could they possibly be thinking?  How did the wealthiest nation in the world end up with one of the most powerful political parties in existence denying a body of scientific evidence that the rest of the world acknowledges?

Now, wading into politics is a sure-fire way to lose friends, I know.  But the CR isn’t shilling for any party.  Consider:  I am registered as an Independent; the only party I’ve ever been a member of is the GOP; and two weeks ago I spent the afternoon handcuffed in a sweltering police paddy wagon for protesting on a Democratic President’s front steps. 

 

Maybe I have about an average level of credibility in assessing where the candidates stand on global warming, no?  Here’s a look at the GOP contenders:

The Pure Climate Deniers

Perry shooting record Texas wildfires from far above

Rick Perry:  “The ‘theory’ of climate change is a hoax concocted by data-manipulating scientists to keep research money coming in to their projects.”  No matter that Perry’s home state is breaking every climate record possible. No matter that every Texas climatologist tells him otherwise. He’s sure.

Michelle Bachmann:  "The big thing we are working on now is the global warming hoax. It's all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax.”  This language doesn’t leave her much wiggle room, does it?

Herman Cain: “It's a scam … scientifically manufactured results. This is conclusive.” No further information necessary.

The Converts to Climate Denial

Newt Gingrich:  In 2008, Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi sat on a loveseat, and filmed a call for action on climate change.  He now has wriggled out of his “loveseat predicament” with this semi-confession:  "Obviously it was misconstrued, and it's probably one of those things I wouldn't do again."

Ron Paul:  In 2007, Paul argued that climate change pollution was an important matter of property rights, and that carbon polluters should be taxed.  But now he calls climate science a fraud: "The greatest hoax I think that has been around for many, many years if not hundreds of years has been this hoax on the environment and global warming."

Sarah Palin:  In 2007, as Alaska Governor, Palin formed a sub-cabinet to prepare and implement a climate change strategy for the state.  And in 2008, VP-candidate Palin said:  "A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location.”  But now, she calls climatology “junk science and doomsday scare tactics pushed by an environmental priesthood that capitalizes on the public’s worry.”

The Believers who Promise no Action

Mitt Romney:   “I don’t speak for the scientific community, of course, but I believe the world’s getting warmer," Romney said in June.  "And number two, I believe that humans contribute to that." In response, Rush Limbaugh pronounced Romney’s political death:  “Bye-bye, nomination,” said Limbaugh. “Another one down.”  (Note:  Romney is still opposed to any effort to put a price on carbon pollution.)

Huntsman warned GOP against anti-science extremism

Jon Huntsman: “All I know is 90 percent of the scientists say climate change is occurring. If 90 percent of the oncological community said something was causing cancer, we’d listen to them. I respect science.” 

But now he’s joined the rest of the GOP field by repudiating his 2008 support for solutions: “A carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system….”  No action on climate until the economy is better, he now says.

So there you have it:  three pure deniers, including the front-runner; three converts to climate denial; and two believers who oppose any action to address global warming.

In fairness, the GOP isn’t entirely closed to believers in climate science.  Republican strategist Marc Morano summed up the party reality this way:  "You can believe in the science of global warming … if you keep your mouth shut about it and you advocate no quote-unquote solution to the problem.”  

Well, I guess that rules me out as the surprise candidate to oppose Obama next year.  I suppose I’ll have to stick to writing the Clothesline Report till 2016.

Thanks for reading, and may God bless you.

J. Elwood

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On Earth as it is in Hell

The sign in the middle of an Austin intersection said it all:  “Satan Called.  He wants his weather back.”

Yes, Texans have been suffering, and some perhaps are praying that the Devil would go back to hell with his fires, drought, and blistering heat.  They’re not alone, are they? Virtually everywhere, we are dealing with increasingly extreme weather, and it’s costing us heavily. But Texas is a special case.

Sign in Austin, TX street

How bad is it?  The statistics are numbing.  How fast can you bake cookies on a car dashboard in Waco?  How many consecutive days over 100 in the state?  How many billions in farm drought losses? How many counties declared disaster areas by the USDA?  How many cattle starved or destroyed? How many Texas wildfires visible from the International Space Station? How many hundreds of Texas homes destroyed by fire?

The answers are discouraging.  213 counties (almost all of them) are USDA disasters.  Forty-one straight days saw 100 plus heat.  $5.2 billion in agricultural losses, and counting. Texas wildfires this year have burned an area the size of Connecticut.  Since last Sunday, 1,626 homes have been destroyed in one Texas county alone. 

 

But maybe it’ll better better tomorrow, right?  Um, wrong.  Texas’ State Climatologist tells us it will likely be worse next year.  “I’ve started telling anyone who’s interested,” says Texas A&M’s  John Nielsen-Gammon, “ that it’s likely that much of Texas will still be in severe drought this time next summer, with water supply implications even worse than those we are now experiencing.”

135 years of TX heat/rainfall records: 2011 is the runaway winner (loser?)

Not everyone is interested, as Texas’ governor reminds us in his speeches.  But how long will he be able to ignore the scientists?  Not long, because there’s a word for drought that lasts multiple years: Dust Bowl.  In fact, “dust-bowl-ification” has become standard lingo among climatologists.

And if you think Texas scientists are simply wallowing in pessimism, I’ve got sobering news.  Research by scientists at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) now tells us that we can’t reverse these weather effects of green house gas concentrations for more than 1,000 years.

There's no soil moisture left to create rains or slow fires

“Our study convinced us that current choices regarding carbon dioxide emissions will have legacies that will irreversibly change the planet,” said NOAA senior scientist Susan Solomon.  The result will be persistent and irreversible weather that is “comparable to the 1930s North American Dust Bowl in .. southwestern North America.”  That means Texas, among others.

And there’s a word for a Dust Bowl that stays around for 1,000 years:  Desert.

In case this hasn’t sunk in, 1,000 years is about 50 generations.  Fifty!  Name one terrible thing you can do today that your descendents will still be suffering for in fifty generations.  Not that easy, is it?

As you know, many of us pray this prayer every day: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  What a shock to look up from our prayer and find that our super-sized Western lifestyle has contributed to the conditions for hell on earth for us and for our distant descendants?

Is it too late to give Satan his weather back?  For the sake of countless generations to come, we must find an answer to that question. And perhaps we might rethink our prayer for God’s will on earth, as it is in heaven.

Thanks for reading, and may God bless you.

J. Elwood

‘Our Heavenly Father, may your name be honored; May your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day the bread we need, Forgive us what we owe to you, as we have also forgiven those who owe anything to us. Keep us clear of temptation, and save us from evil.’   Jesus' prayer, from Matthew 6

More Images from Texas drought

Blackened skies over Texas, burnt homes

Drop the garden hose and run

Fenced livestock can't escape

Measures of soil dryness at top of scale for almost every Texas county

 

 

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You Are Now All Under Arrest …

“… No one may leave the secured area.”

With that, U.S. Park Police Lt. Marshall snapped off the megaphone, and walked back to the armored SWAT truck.

137 of us stood or sat completely still, in five ranks, with our backs to the White House’s iron pickets.  The time was 11:31, Thursday morning.  Ministers, retirees, college students, programmers, and farmers among many others awaiting search, handcuffing, and the paddy wagons bound for Anacostia and processing.  The first to go was a wheelchair-restricted woman named Lolly, who was taken away to thunderous applause of all of us awaiting our own turn, and of the hundreds of onlookers across the avenue in Lafayette Park.

Lolly, the first to be arrested

Next to me stood my brother, Christopher Elwood, a Presbyterian minister.  For the next three hours, our steadily diminishing band hoarsely belted out familiar tunes, reworked on the spot with lyrics to urge President Obama not to approve the Tar Sands pipeline from Canada to the Gulf.

 

The tar sands have been called the world’s filthiest fuel.  NASA’s lead scientist has warned that if the pipeline is built and the tar sands are mined, then for the global climate, “it’s game over.”

We were at the White House for many different reasons.  Most of us were older with kids, and nearly half could have been grandparents.  Most said they were there for them: the kids and grandchildren.  (For me, it was a little beauty named Clara Mae.)

137 lawbreakers demanding the President protect the earth

There were indigenous people who testified to skyrocketing cancer and illness rates in the tar sands region.  They told of hunting elk and moose which were covered with sores from toxic waste.  They told us of the utter destruction of their lands and waterways.

There were Midwesterners who rely on the Oglala Aquifer, over which the proposed pipeline will carry the toxic diluted bitumen.  They recounted the dozens of spills which have already plagued a smaller pipeline carrying tar sands fuel.  And they told of the Republican governor of Nebraska who has just come out against the tar sands for similar reasons.

Clothesline Report editor John Elwood

But all of us are indigenous to the earth that God has made for us.  And some of us were keenly aware that we are only tenants, and that this planet belongs to Him.  Even more, the Christians among us affirm that the earth is not principally our inheritance, but Christ’s.  We stood at the White House gates out of allegiance to the Savior to whom all things belong.

One placard captured a reality seen by all: “There is no Planet B.”

It took about three hours.  One by one, we were led away.  132 was Ted, a father from Portland; 133 was Tony, a recent college grad from Colorado.  Then the officer pointed at me.  As the plastic cuffs were tightened behind my back, I heard a few hands clapping, and my brother’s voice:  “Well done, John.”

Rev. Christopher Elwood

I looked back, and there stood Chris, solemn, smiling.  Two young men stood beside him: Sam, a college sophomore from Ohio; and Jeff, a systems programmer from DC. The final three to be taken.

As they led us to the wagon, the crowd behind the police barricade sang: “It’s the hammer of justice, it’s the bell of freedom, it’s the song about the love between my brothers and my sisters….”

Thanks for reading, and may God bless you.

J. Elwood

More Tar Sands Action Photos 
All photos courtesy of Josh Lopez and Shadia Fayne Wood

Protesters crossing Lafayette Park to the White House

There's a law against this: Standing for climate justice

All kinds of people come together against tar sands pollution

Women first:  They arrested the men last

Dignity: Charles, a foreign affairs expert in his 70's

Never stop singing: Young man added his voice to ours while led away

Behind the barricade: Onlookers demanding a stop to the pipeline

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