Fossil Fuelishness
Historian Barbara Tuchman once wrote the “rejection of reason is the prime characteristic of folly.” The lack of urgency in addressing the eco-crisis is an example. Heat waves in India, floods in Texas, drought in California, melting polar ice caps, rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere and so much more, are still presented as unconnected dots. Climate summits come and go resulting in little more than lofty announcements. With an abundance of solar and wind energy at our fingertips it’s stunning and reckless that fossil fuelishness continues. As a sign said in Seattle protesting a huge Shell rig heading for drilling in the Arctic, “Good Planets are Hard to Find.”
Speaker
Rob Larson
Rob Larson is a professor of economics at Tacoma Community College. His articles appear in In These Times, Dollars & Sense, and Jacobin. He is the author of Bleakonomics, Capitalism vs. Freedom and Bit Tyrants: The Political Economy of Silicon Valley.
Iris Marie Bloom –
This was so well done that I think it’s actually one of those one-hour “must-listen” experiences that every high schooler, every college student and ideally every resident and family in the U.S. needs to hear. He condenses the science, both about climate and about fracking, quite beautifully and confidently. Appropriately, he also begins by exposing the oil and gas industry funding of climate denialists, a factor most people underestimate. Resist fossil fuelishness, and take heed: listen to Larson.