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Al Gore vergelijkt klimaat'ontkenners' met voorstanders van slavernij, racisten, homofoben en alcoholici
Zo kan ie wel weer!
Zoals mijn trouwe lezers inmiddels weten, laboreert het klimaatdebat aan heftige verkettering van opponenten. Telkens als men hoopt dat er nu eindelijk eens een constructieve discussie op gang kan worden gebracht, gebaseerd op feiten, zijn er weer lieden die wilde uitspraken doen. Zo ook Al Gore.
In een recent interview met Ezra Klein van 'The Washington Post' heeft Al Gore klimaat'ontkenners' vergeleken met voorstanders van slavernij, racisten, homofoben en alcoholici.
Ik pik er een aantal elementen uit:
Washington Posts Ezra Klein spoke with Al Gore about why hes so optimistic about stopping global warming. Excerpts are pasted below and the full transcript can be found here.
EK: Do the policy failures of the last decade put more pressure on technological advances to be the source of the solution?
AG: No, I seem them as intertwined. To some extent, the failure of policy at Copenhagen and before that in Washington has put more emphasis on the hopeful developments in technology, but as the conversation is won on global warming and its not won yet but its very nearly won the possibilities for policy changes once again open up. ...
EK: Give me the optimistic scenario on what happens next. If all goes well, what do the next few years look like on this issue?
AG: Well, I think the most important part of it is winning the conversation. I remember as a boy when the conversation on civil rights was won in the South. I remember a time when one of my friends made a racist joke and another said, hey man, we dont go for that anymore. The same thing happened on apartheid. The same thing happened on the nuclear arms race with the freeze movement. The same thing happened in an earlier era with abolition. A few months ago, I saw an article about two gay men standing in line for pizza and some homophobe made an ugly comment about them holding hands and everyone else in line told them to shut up. Were winning that conversation.
The conversation on global warming has been stalled because a shrinking group of denialists fly into a rage when its mentioned. Its like a family with an alcoholic father who flies into a rage every time a subject is mentioned and so everybody avoids the elephant in the room to keep the peace.
But the political climate is changing. Something like Chris Hayess excellent documentary on climate change wouldnt have made it on TV a few years ago. And as I said, many Republicans whore still timid on the issue are now openly embarrassed about the extreme deniers. The deniers are being hit politically. Theyre being subjected to ridicule, which stings.
The polling is going back up in favor of doing something on this issue. The ability of the raging deniers to stop progress is waning every single day. When that conversation is won, youll see more measures at the local and state level and less resistance to what the EPA is doing. And slowly it will become popular to propose steps that go further and politicians that take the bit in their teeth get rewarded.
I remember when the tide turned on smoking in public places. People thought the late Frank Lautenburg was crazy for proposing a ban on smoking in airplanes, but he was rewarded politically and then politicians began falling all over themselves to do the same. Thats the optimistic scenario. And its not just a scenario! Its happening now!
Dont get me wrong. Weve got a long way to go. Were still increasing emissions. But were approaching this tipping point. Businesses are driving it. Grass roots are driving it. Policies and changes in law in places like india and China and Mexico and California and Ireland will proliferate and increase, and soon well get to the point where national laws will evolve into global cooperation.
Lees verder hier.
Al Gore doet mij enigszins aan Trotski (destijds concurrent van Stalin en in diens opdracht uiteindelijk vermoord) denken, van wie wel werd gezegd: 'Evidence of his foresightedness is the fact that none of his predictions have yet come true.'
Voor mijn eerdere DDS-bijdragen, zie hier.
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