” … for me, one frustration of the coronavirus pandemic is that it’s temporarily interrupting the movement-building that is necessary to beat the fossil-fuel industry.” (McKibben, below)
Some of us went to jail, in January, to launch the campaign, which was going to crest [this Earth Day] with a wave of acts of nonviolent civil disobedience…. But now we can’t … as the potential for community spread of COVID-19 became clear…. (McKibben, below)
In his weekly commentary for the New Yorker (see yesterday’s post), Bill McKibben speaks to “The Coronavirus an the Climate” (March 18, 2020). His 500-word analysis about climate and the current pandemic speaks a book.
Here it is:
My daughter… asked me the other day, “Do you think we’re going to go on having crises like this my whole life?”…
“[Climate] is not only a crisis—it is the most thorough and complete crisis our species and our civilizations have ever faced, one there is no guarantee that we will survive intact.” – Bill McKibben (2020)
“[The fossil fuel industry] is Public Enemy Number One to the survival of our planetary civilization.” – Bill McKibben (2012)
“Welcome to the Climate Crisis Newsletter,” featuring Bill McKibben, states the New Yorker. The new feature from the glassy-eyed, fringe fossil-fuel critic is the latest example of foregone scholarship and, in an election year, Trump Derangement Syndrome.
The ultimate crisis? The end of civilization as we know it? Isn’t this what is under debate, with climate optimism a viable position given the protective role of wealth and abundant fossil fuels?
To McKibben and his mainstream media prop, it is all assumption, and false ones at that.…
“The bill would significantly increase logging across America’s federal forests, convert millions of acres into industrial tree plantations, increase carbon emissions, increase wildfire risk, and harm wildlife and watersheds.” (Re: Progressive Letter of Opposition to The Trillion Trees Act, February 25, 2020)
Planning the climate means planning the economy, from energy production and usage to forestry and agriculture. With three trillion trees on earth, and each involved with the carbon cycle, there is much to do for climate planners.
A Republican-introduced climate bill—the 59-page Trillion Trees Act (H.R. 5859)—has rightly been criticized by conservatives and libertarians. But its major thrust and specifics have also attracted trenchant opposition from the Left.
The Proposal
The Trillion Trees Act, introduced by Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), and promoted by President Trump himself, is subtitled
To establish forest management, reforestation, and utilization practices which lead to the sequestration of greenhouse gases, and for other purposes
H.R.…