President Obama's paltry efforts to make people believe we can "adapt" to Global Warming is akin to the civil defense efforts of the 1950's trying to make people believe we could fight and "survive" a nuclear war.
Most of you probably don't remember the "duck and cover" training school kids got in the 50's and 60's to "protect" themselves from the 20 megaton air burst that was going to vaporize everything within a 3 mile radius of ground zero and completely destroy everything in a 15 mile radius. Yep, after the nuclear attack you were supposed to crawl out from under your school desk and do... what? I never quite got that second part. What were you supposed to do when you crawled out of the rubble with a million or so dead people all around and no electricity, no gasoline, no food, no water, no government, and streets full of armed survivalists who've just had their dreams come true so can they can suck up any remaining resources and kill anyone who gets in their way?
Of course, this whole effort was total bull shit. The real goal, was to make Americans believe we could fight and win a nuclear war on Saturday, and on Sunday everyone could go to their little churches and learn how Jesus loves apple pie, the flag, and the American way of life.
Once we all believed nuclear war was winnable and the Ruskies were about to come ashore on Coney Island, then the Military Industrial Complex was free to rob America's treasury and future so nobody could ever take our freedom fries from us.
And here we go again.
Last week, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced one of the administrations new plans to address Global Warming.
Regional Hubs for Risk Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change will be located in seven locations around the country, Vilsack told reporters. He said farmers and ranchers have a direct interest in combating climate change because of the adverse impacts of storms and droughts on land.
This was followed up by the Presidents announcement yesterday of a billion dollars for his
“climate resilience fund”.
President Obama said here Friday that he will propose a $1 billion fund in his fiscal 2015 budget to help communities prepare for the effects of climate change and to fund research and technology to protect against its impact.
1 $billion?! Really? The F22 Raptor fighter jet has had
over $50 billion in just cost overruns, and we can only find $1 billion to try and stop the collapse of civilization over the coming decades?!
Trying to "adapt" to Global Warming is like the French aristocrats thinking they were going to be able to "adapt" to the guillotine. Maybe Senator Inhofe was right when he said Global Warming was a cruel hoax. Only the cruel hoax will be on civilization if they're led to believe that we can "adapt" to a new climate that is 5C warmer in 50 years and rising faster than it is today.
The fossil fuel giants have bought their politicians, the right wing propaganda machine has it's army of Tea bagger deniers, and the media continues with presenting flat earth and round earth points of view as both equally valid. I believe the only way to get out of this mess now is to make Alternative energies cheaper than carbon fossil energies.
President Obama made a big deal out of how he was going to bypass congress if they refused to take action. President Lincoln signed an executive order (Emancipation Proclamation) to end slavery in the U.S. and all President Obama can come up with is climate zones and a $billion to save civilization?
With one stroke of the pen, President Obama could order all Federal buildings to reduce their electricity usage by 10% and to purchase wind and solar power for at least 50% of their electricity usage by 2020. With one stroke of the pen the president could order 50% of all new federal car purchases be 0 emissions and the remaining purchases to exceed fuel efficiency standards by 2020.
Almost a year before John Glenn made America's first orbital space flight, President Kennedy vowed to put a man on the moon within 9 years. Where is President Obama's bold effort to make NASA the new carbonless energy technology developer for the 21st century?
We need bold action to stop the slow motion disaster that has already started, not feel good BS that we'll just fix you up after the train hits you.
Giving the false impression that we can "adapt" to Global Warming is almost as bad as denying Global Warming. This "adaptation" approach will fall apart quickly when the right wing propaganda machine starts talking about clean coal, clean fracked NG and oil, clean tar sands, and clean CO2 to help forests grow.
No Mr. President, there is no "adaptation" to this disaster, only prevention, and last week you took a step backward.