Science and Climate the Losers in American Midterm Elections

November 5, 2014 – The American public voting in the midterm elections have rendered a verdict against science and against reducing carbon. They may have done this inadvertently edged on by fear, uncertainty and doubt from the propaganda spewing across the airwaves about a rising Islamic caliphate terror threat, and Ebola in America. But in their verdict scientific reason and the dire warnings of the much larger threat of climate change have been thrown to the curb.

Living north of the border here in Canada I have often been puzzled by the American political process. The divide between the arms of government in the last six years has never seemed greater. I suppose one could have said the same in the period prior to the American Civil War a century-and-a-half ago. Then the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the institution of slavery, a mini-civil war broke out in the nascent state of Kansas, and families divided along with congress in addressing the issues of human bondage and states’ rights.

To me the midterm results validate America’s addiction to fossil fuels and the public’s desire to continue to ride in gasoline-powered cars and trucks for at least two more years before looking at the issue of climate change and a reduced carbon footprint once again. It means the United States has little concern about the implications of further delay in making some hard decisions to transition from the status quo to a new paradigm based on conservation and renewable energy. It may mean no agreement of substance will be reached on climate change in Paris in 2015 because the willful ignorant in the U.S. Congress will choose not to ratify a binding covenant that requires America to achieve a lower carbon footprint.

In Canada, of course, it is difficult to be a critic when your own national government professes to be tackling climate change while our greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise largely because of increased capacity from Western Canadian oil sands. The American disease of willful ignorance can also be found here in our federal government.

Meanwhile the generation of youth must look on and wonder. They and their children will inherit a world far different from the one I was borne into. If I were them I’d be asking lots of questions and getting organized to confront those who govern with such callous disregard for the planet’s future.