False Narratives About Climate
We are being fed a steady stream of false narratives about climate. But that's not surprising if you look at how many other false narratives are floating around.
My purpose here is to cast doubt on the prevailing narrative around climate change; not that climate change isn’t real, because it is; and not that fossil fuels and CO2 are not a problem, because they are; but the story, as presented by the UN and by the mainstream media, is misleading because it leaves out important facts.
The prevailing narrative is like this: By burning fossil fuels, we have increased CO2 levels. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, which causes warming. The warming, in turn, causes fires, droughts, floods, sea-level rise, etc.
They say virtually nothing about how we assault the land and its ecosystems, via agriculture, road-building, defense, surveillance, deforestation.
They make it sound like it’s our fault, that we humans, by nature, are just too lazy and self-indulgent. We are too concerned with short term pleasure and thrill-seeking to care for wildlife, water quality or the well-being of future generations of humans … so the story goes.
But here’s the thing: The media is sponsored by the elites. They are not going to bite the hand that feeds them. The media are not going to offer a serious critique of any major economic sector. They are not going to seriously question endless wars, which are a big contributor to atmospheric carbon and to land degradation. They are not going to seriously critique our transportation system, which is a big contributor to atmospheric carbon and to land degradation. You could say the same things about agriculture and forestry. These sectors are owned by the elites who also own the media, so the media is not going to offer a serious critique of any major economic sector.
And they only pretend to offer a serious critique of the energy sector.
We are told that our main task is to reduce fossil fuels by switching to “renewable energy.” As if all we need to do is change our energy system. All we need to do is change HOW we generate energy, not WHAT we do with that energy.
We can keep doing all the same things. Just so we generate energy differently. We can cut down a forest as long as we do it with solar powered chainsaws and electric bulldozers. We can bomb other countries with depleted uranium, just so we drop the bombs from electric aircraft.
And let’s talk about healthcare. Is there any serious doubt that our for-profit healthcare system is needlessly expensive and delivers worse outcomes than many poorer countries?
How is this relevant to climate? Because every large-scale injustice has an impact on climate. When people are sick, they can’t be worrying about their carbon footprint. The same is true when people are working longer hours to pay for expensive health insurance and expensive healthcare. They are too busy to be concerned with their carbon footprint or sustainable living.
When countless billions are channeled into the bank accounts of the wealthy, because they control every major economic sector, that’s bad for the climate because it creates an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust--warranted suspicion and mistrust--which does not lend itself to problem solving.
Speaking of suspicion and mistrust, our trust in the mainstream media is at an all time low. And many liberals are the last to know the extent to which their “trusted” news sources are misleading them and installing false narratives, i.e., lies.
All you have to do is follow the coverage of Russia since 2016 to know that this is a truckload of lies that benefits war profiteers and no one else. But you have to follow that story from independent journalists with integrity.
I ask you to get your news and commentary from independent journalists like Matt Taibbi, Aaron Mate, Abby Martin, Katie Halper and Chris Hedges. They will not lie to you.
What we really need is a true set of narratives relating to climate and to the environment. You will not get them from corporate media or, sadly, from our government. I’ve followed this story for five years. I’ve published 378 episodes of The Climate Report.
I used to believe the mainstream narrative. I used to trust the “scientists” of the United Nations to lead the way. Now I don’t, for reasons given above.
Please get your news PRIMARILY from independent journalists with integrity. The first step is to distinguish truth from fiction. Without that step, nothing else matters.