[Vision2020] "Cultural Cognition", not Stupidity

[Ted Moffett]

On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 2:09 AM, Donovan Arnold <
donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:

"... it is a question of marketing their product, "Stop Global Warming". It
> is a horribly run campaign that appeals to only the most far left political
> thinkers. I believe that more moderate and conservatives would agree to
> help stop global warming if it was re-branded and geared to their values
> and interests."
>
> ---------------------------------

I suppose it goes without saying that interests who do not wish to have
their bottom line impacted by the substantial changes needed to address
anthropogenic global warming, are "marketing" their propaganda rather
successfully to manipulate public opinion here in the US, so the efforts to
address global warming are up against rather stiff competition.  I don't
think the blame for the lack of substantial action at the national level to
address global warming, is primarily the result of a "horribly run
campaign" by those wishing action to address the problem.

I disagree that the "campaign" as you put it, to address global warming,
appeals "to only the most far left political thinkers."  What has happened
to the political landscape, as I suspect you must know, is that the
republican party has been hijacked by an extreme agenda, on global warming
and other issues, that makes moderates look like leftists.  The
conservatives, military thinkers, leaders, and scholars referenced below on
global warming, who are not "far left," do not pass the current extreme
agenda litmus test in the republican party to deny the problem of global
warming.

Consider this quote from Senator John McCain, who I doubt many think is
"far left:"

http://www.notable-quotes.com/g/global_warming_quotes.html

We have many advantages in the fight against global warming, but time is
not one of them. Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global
warming, or the precise timeline of global warming, we need to deal with
the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters, and all the
endless troubles that global warming will bring. We stand warned by serious
and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers
are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is
equal to the challenge.

JOHN MCCAIN, speech, May 12, 2008

--------------------------

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens, well known supporter of W. Bush and
the Swift Boating of John Kerry, stated his support for the climate bill
under Obama that never was passed:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/28/t-boone-pickens-climate-c_n_554802.html

T. Boone Pickens: Climate Change Bill Is Coming, 'It's Too Important For
The Security Of America'

"But I will be for the bill. I will just have to accept the other parts
because this is too important for the security of America."

Despite the ballooning Federal deficit, Pickens said America's economy
can't wait to pass a climate bill that would cut America's dependence on
fossil fuels

--------------------------

>From that bastion of tree hugging left wingers (ha!), the Pentagon, an
analysis of the threat of global warming indicated it is serious national
security issue, as this 2004 article indicates:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2004/feb/22/usnews.theobserver

The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defence adviser Andrew
Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the
past three decades. He was the man behind a sweeping recent review aimed at
transforming the American military under Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Climate change 'should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US
national security concern', say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant
and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of
the California-based Global Business Network.

---------------------------

And a more recent military analysis indicates the threat to national
security, from 2009:

http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/2010-July/070740.html

Climate Change Threat to U.S. Security: General Anthony C. Zinni: "We will
pay for this one way or another"

---------------------------

A must read for anyone who thinks global warming is not a threat to
national security is military scholar Gwynne Dyer's book "Climate Wars"

http://gwynnedyer.com/about-gwynne/

A copy is at the Troy Community Library but can be pulled for availability
at the Moscow Public Library
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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