Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Obama On Climate Change

President Obama at the UN yesterday:

Today, I am here personally, as the leader of the world’s largest economy and its second largest emitter, to say we have begun to do something about it….but let me be honest, none of this is without controversy. In each of our countries, there will be interests that will be resistant to action. And in each country, there is a suspicion that if we act and other countries don’t, that we will be at an economic disadvantage. But we have to lead…

Yes, this is hard. But there should be no question that the United States of America is stepping up to the plate. We recognize our role in creating this problem. We embrace our responsibility to combat it. We will do our part. And we will help developing nations do theirs. But we can only succeed in combating climate change if we are joined in this effort by every nation, developed and developing alike. Nobody gets a pass.

Speaking of interests that will be resistant

In an email to supporters, Tim Phillips, the president of the Koch political advocacy organization Americans for Prosperity, decried the president’s “radical international energy agenda for “what used to be called global warming, then climate change, then extreme weather, and now finally climate disruption.” (The idea that the left changes the name of global warming as a propagandistic fiction is a conservative meme.) Phillips then blamed the Republican filibuster of climate legislation on Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)…

Shorter Koch: Whatchamacallit isn’t that bad and we’re making money from it so shut up.

I don’t think the Kochs have anything to worry about.  They’ve bought and paid for enough of the House and the Senate to insure that no significant legislation that will do anything about climate change will be passed in the next two years; they couldn’t pass a kidney stone.  Even if the Democrats maintain control of the Senate or even win the House back (yeah, and get a pony and rainbows, too), there’s too much institutional inertia to overcome to do anything more than just tinker around the edges.  Basically nothing will happen until Rush Limbaugh’s house in Palm Beach is under water.

The president can tighten the EPA rules by executive order, but that’s like bailing out the Titanic with a sponge.

One bark on “Obama On Climate Change

  1. May I take this moment to speak of the Koch’s? I read this morning that their foundation to “advance American interests” (read THEIR interests) is now getting involved in school board elections and agendas. Witness Arvada CO where a Koch funded brace of board members, conservative of course, are trying to force on the teachers and kids their own vision of what should be taught to impressionable young minds – patriotism, dependence on the judgment of their elders (no protests for whatever cause), support of capitalism and other conservative memes. Not surprisingly the kids are out of school and, with their teachers, are protesting and marching.

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