It’s time to call it a day
They’ve burst your pretty balloon
And taken the moon away
It’s time to wind up the masquerade
Just make your mind up – the piper must be paid…
The ongoing squabble about climate change has become so immature and simplistic that it’s truly hard to find anything worth saying on the subject anymore. Homo sapiens is such a narcissistic creature, the idea it might destroy its own habitat begets every excuse under the sun for not taking responsibility and doing something about it. We are so totally absorbed with ourselves and how wonderful we are – the ‘pinnacle of creation’ – that any suggestion we might be slowly annihilating ourselves is treated by most with utter disdain.
We couldn’t ever exist without our smartphones, tablets, Facebook (even the Queen of Britain tweets, you know)…
…and our plethora of petroleum products – all necessary attributes of our collective egocentricity. Anyone born after 1980 just couldn’t imagine ever being without them.
Yet there was a time when we lived quite happily without them. And, there was no reason why we would have had to do without them in the future, or, at least, similar alternatives, had governments taken their responsibilities seriously and concerned themselves with the welfare of their electorate, rather than those who bribed and corrupted them.
It’s too late now. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. Oh, they will. They’ll laugh and snigger and snort derisively at the very idea of man-made climate change. They’ll still be doing so when their house is consumed by the next mammoth forest fire, or tornado, or catastrophic flood. Only, then, the sniggers will be a trifle more forced.
Those who must carry a heavy burden of responsibly for the imminent downfall of the human race are the religious. No, not your Auntie Edie who plays the organ at the chapel down the road every Sunday. The true politico-religious bigot. The one who stubbornly believes the Bible is the only history of mankind. The one who is convinced, despite all the evidence, that his “God” will save him at the last moment.
America has more than most. In fact, religious bigots in America are rather like its nuclear weapons. If you stacked them all up in a big pile there’d be more than in all the rest of the countries of the world put together.
Here’s one…
…John Shimkus (R-IL) doesn’t believe man is causing climate change. Here’s why:
“Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though all inclinations of his heart are evil from childhood and never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
“As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.”
“I believe that’s the infallible word of God, and that’s the way it’s going to be for his creation,” Shimkus said.
Then he quoted Matthew 24:31.
“And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.”“The Earth will end only when God declares it’s time to be over. Man will not destroy this Earth. This Earth will not be destroyed by a Flood,” Shimkus asserted. “I do believe that God’s word is infallible, unchanging, perfect.”[1]
This, from the Chairman of the US government’s Subcommittee on Environment and Economy. What chance did our environment ever have when its guardians believed they could do what the hell they liked, and “God” would always make it alright?
Here’s another:
Paul Broun (R-Ga) is another Bible thumper. Here’s part of his Wikipedia page:
2009 Global Warming controversy
In June 2009, Broun received a standing ovation when he said that global warming is a “hoax”. He said “Scientists all over this world say that the idea of human induced global climate change is one of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated out of the scientific community. It is a hoax. There is no scientific consensus.”2010 Global Warming controversy.
When Broun explained in June 2010 to the John Birch Society that the entire concept of man-made global warming is a conspiracy perpetuated by certain members of the scientific community to “destroy America.”2012 Evolution controversy
On September 27, 2012, in a speech at the Liberty Baptist Church Sportsman’s Banquet, Broun stated that the sciences of embryology, evolution, and the Big Bang are “lies straight from the Pit of Hell … lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior.” This position is in support of his stance supporting Young Earth creationism. In the speech he also said that, “Earth is about 9,000 years old,” that “it was created in six days as we know them,” and that mainline Christian denominations are “going to send their people to hell”
Paul Broun serves on the United States House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
Yes, it does seem incredible, but it’s true. These are the very people we elected to watch out for our interests. These are supposed to be our friends in high places. Perhaps, we should reconsider who our enemies are? With hindsight, alongside these guys Osama bin Laden may prove to have been a puppy.
Not that it matters anymore because the Shimkus’s and the Broun’s won’t be going away. Because of them, it’s too late. This month the CO2 in the atmosphere passed 400ppm. We have enough fossil fuel reserves at present to double that figure within sixteen years. Yet, we’re pumping, blasting, drilling more out the planet than ever before; like our lives depended on it. In truth, the exact opposite is the case.
If we stopped emitting any greenhouse gases from this moment in time, the earth would continue to heat up for the next thousand years. We have witnessed – many have already fallen victim to – the drastic changes in weather patterns that have occurred over the last twenty or so years. Take a moment to imagine how the weather will be in a thousand years time. And that’s if we stop now; this instant. No more oil, no more coal, no more belching factory chimneys.
It’s not going to happen. Messrs Shimkus, Broun, and their political pals will guarantee that.
That’s why it’s already too late. Think it out for yourself. How could it possibly be otherwise?
Remember…the piper must be paid…
[1] “God will save us from climate change: U.S. Representative” Toronto Star, November 10th 2010
