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CARMAN: GOP's 'appetite for destruction'

By Diane Carman

Published September 10, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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The irony was almost creepy. Thousands of Republicans were gleefully chanting "Drill, baby, drill" inside a convention hall in St. Paul, Minn., some 43 years nearly to the day after the infamous Watts riots when the original chant, "Burn, baby, burn" was coined by mobs determined to incinerate Los Angeles in a fit of rage.

The delegates' apparent appetite for destruction is similarly insatiable, only unlike the burning of city buildings in 1965, the damage from rampant oil drilling and continued runaway consumption of fossil fuels now would be permanent.

Not only would fragile wilderness areas, sensitive habitats and our ocean ecosystems be sacrificed for the sake of our continued quest to extract more and more oil, but the health of the planet would be forever altered by the burning of it.

James Hansen, NASA's leading climate scientist, has said that the policies of the next presidential administration will be critical in defusing what he calls the "global warming time bomb."

In an interview with The New York Times in June, he said, "If we don't begin to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the next several years . . . then we are in trouble. Then the ice sheets are in trouble. Many species on the planet are in trouble."

In another ironic twist, on the same day that the convention delegates chanted maniacally for more drilling anywhere and everywhere, a chunk of 4,500-year-old Arctic ice the size of Manhattan broke away from Ellesmere Island to drift into the Arctic Ocean and disappear.

"These changes are irreversible under the present climate and indicate that the environmental conditions that have kept these ice shelves in balance for thousands of years are no longer present," Derek Mueller, an Arctic ice shelf specialist at Trent University in Ontario, told The Associated Press.

The evidence is indisputable. The Christian Science Monitor reported last month that in Gov. Sarah Palin's home state of Alaska, glaciers are receding at a rate of 1.8 meters a year, nearly double the rate of the last decade. The melting is raising sea levels by 0.27 meters a year, according to Anthony Arendt at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Science.

"What's happening with climate change - it's not speculation," Colleen Swan, a tribal administrator of Kivalina, a 399-person Inupiat community on the Chukchi Sea, told the Monitor. "It's our reality."

A further irony is that the convention delegates seemed to be advocating a policy that radically contradicts that of their presidential nominee.

On his campaign Web site, John McCain calls for greenhouse-gas emissions to be cut 60 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Obviously, this is impossible with an energy policy based on continued reliance on fossil fuels.

His Web site acknowledges as much, calling for federal government programs to create a strict carbon cap-and-trade mechanism and to "spur the development and deployment of advanced technology" to replace the old fossil-fuel-dependent energy systems.

Every political convention-watcher knows that the rhetoric inside the hall is meant to appeal to the most basic emotions of the rabidly partisan faithful. Unfortunately, what happens inside the hall doesn't stay there.

It gets broadcast around the world to places like Denmark, Brazil, The Netherlands and Japan where people who have dramatically changed their lives and their economies in an effort to avoid the devastating effects of climate change hear the bleating of "Drill, baby, drill" and can't help but feel utter despair . . .

. . . Just like Americans did when they saw the pictures of Los Angeles on fire and heard the crowds yelling, "Burn, baby, burn."

It's an irrational, sadistic, self-destructive impulse, and Americans would do well not to indulge it.

As Hansen so often has said, the planet is not ours to destroy.

Diane Carman is director of communications for the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado at Denver, which houses the Presidential Climate Action Project. She is a former Denver Post columnist.

Comments

  • September 10, 2008

    6:23 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Mike846 writes:

    Jeez, thats quite a leap, from Watts to St. Paul. The only self-destructive behavior on display in the last couple of weeks has been the Liberal media and Democrat Party shooting themselves in the foot over the choice of a woman Vice Presidential candidate by the Republican party. Ms. Carmen's return to these pages is fraught with distortion, selective "facts" and a clear lean to the Left with regard to the issue of fossil fuels. Next she'll be calling for the jailing of "global warming deniers". No wonder the RMN is losing subscribers. Mike

  • September 10, 2008

    6:51 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    ghoax writes:

    man made global warming is still an unproven theory created by a small faction of environmentalists and politicians who seek more power. .0011% of the greenhouse effect is what they are up in air about with not one bit of credible proof that CO2 is the culprit (actually the proof shows the opposite of the greens claim) ...yet we continue to hear the chant of the mother nature worshippers and pay the prices as they move restrictive legislation to control what we do, how we live and what we pay. The hoax is the largest crime against our population since the federal reserve act. CO2 levels have been rising yet the average temperatures dropping since 1998..silent from the greens. Solar Activity is directly tied with warm periods in this last centure...silence from the greens. The bigger the lie the more it will be believed...and that's exactly what we see today with the "world will freeze, population explosion and now save the planet because humans will cause us to roast crowd. Forget the demand debate.. DEMAND PROOF before you start handing over your freedom, your wallet and your security to environmentalist fascism.

  • September 10, 2008

    7:01 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    COnative1966 writes:

    Where is your call for a massive move to Nuclear enegry? France gets 80% of it's power from Nuclear enegry.

  • September 10, 2008

    7:54 a.m.

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    SheikYurBooty writes:

    CArman shows how desperate she is by citing Jim Hansen, NASA's leading climate scientist, with a well-known "agenda," which Carman **conveniently** fails to mention. Millions of Americans believe climate change is a conspiracy. Who are you going to believe - one "agenda-driven, elitist" NASA scientist with a PhD and a lifetime devoted to the subject or millions of God-fearing, patriotic Americans who love Jesus and their SUVs???

  • September 10, 2008

    8:48 a.m.

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    spruce writes:

    In Diane Carman's "appetite for destruction", she clearly displays her own appetite for hyperbole. Drawing an analogy between the Watts riot and Republicans' "appetite for destruction" and what she terms maniacal chanting is so ridiculous, it trivializes her whole column.

    Instead, she might have provided a shred of evidence that drilling in the Arctic has affected "fragile wilderness areas", "sensitive habitats" or "ocean ecosystyems" in any way.

  • September 10, 2008

    9:19 a.m.

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    CL writes:

    ghoax -
    >>man made global warming is still an unproven theory created by a small faction of environmentalists and politicians who seek more power.<<

    That is incorrect.

    AGW theory was not "created by a small faction of environmentalists and politicians", but by scientists as the cycles and patterns of the past ice ages became better understood.

    >>.0011% of the greenhouse effect is what they are up in air about with not one bit of credible proof that CO2 is the culprit (actually the proof shows the opposite of the greens claim)<<

    This makes no sense. Do you deny that CO2 absorbs infrared radiation?

    >>CO2 levels have been rising yet the average temperatures dropping since 1998..silent from the greens.<<

    Not silence, for example see my post just 3 days ago at 10:36 a.m. here:
    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news...
    where we can see that you were the silent one.

    >>Solar Activity is directly tied with warm periods in this last centure...silence from the greens.<<

    Again, not silence. I addressed that point at 11:22 a.m. on the same thread as above - solar activity flattened and even declined beginning in the early-mid 1980s while temps contiued to climb - but then you were the silent one there as well.

    ghoax, I've responded to your nonsense like this several times here on the RMN forums. Did you not see those or are you just lying when you say these supposed points are unanswered?

  • September 10, 2008

    2:20 p.m.

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    byteme writes:

    Thankfully Diane Carman has joined the broccoli-eating-hemp-wearing-oh-so-hypocritical-elite academia where I am sure her opinions are better appreciated by naive college students who, because of their status as such highly-productive members of the economy will benefit from Obama's tax credit, and we don't have to read her non-composted garbage in the paper every day.

  • September 10, 2008

    5:30 p.m.

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    greenleaf writes:

    ghoax,

    I'm with CL, we have both rebutted your AGW claims time and again. I actually think that when the subject first arose nearly 30 years ago you equipped yourself with blinders so that you wouldn't read any dissenting views that might upset your view of the world.

    Speaking as a scientist and concerned citizen I also resent being called a fascist when in reality, I am a blatantly capitalistic businessman.

    Consider checking out one of my favorite organizations, the Rocky Mountain institute. You sound like a "market forces" kind of guy, you might appreciate their form of "fascism" as they are market capitalists and fiscal conservative environmentalists as well. Take the blinders off for once and learn some useful facts and concepts for the good of the rest of us.

    http://www.rmi.org/

  • September 13, 2008

    12:41 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    daRock writes:

    Appetite for Destruction was my favourite Guns N' Roses album.
    BTW I have a lot of respect for greenleaf and CL with their well thought out and supported posts.

    I just cannot stand Carman.

  • September 13, 2008

    6:57 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jaybyrd writes:

    The GOP is self-destructing, unless of course you read the current polls which indicate a decline in Obama support, a decline in Obama fundraising, and 10 percentage point rise over the last month for the generic GOP congressional candidate vs. the generic Dem congressional candidate. Talented (or not) wordsmiths such as Ms. Carman...who fails to disclose she is married to a Dem hack while promoting the Dems in her column...have never let raw data get in the way of their unsupported theses. Soldier on, Dem groupie.

  • September 13, 2008

    8:09 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    greenleaf writes:

    daRock,

    Thank you my friend, compliments in these forums is much like water in the desert. What we believe in deeply becomes a part of us. I believe deeply in my responsibilities as a part of this world. I take my postings very seriously and I appreciate your posting. I don't know if CL will return but I'm certain that he would also thank you!

  • September 15, 2008

    8:19 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    fatheromalley writes:

    'The delegates' apparent appetite for destruction is similarly insatiable, only unlike the burning of city buildings in 1965, the damage from rampant oil drilling and continued runaway consumption of fossil fuels now would be permanent.

    Not only would fragile wilderness areas, sensitive habitats and our ocean ecosystems be sacrificed for the sake of our continued quest to extract more and more oil, but the health of the planet would be forever altered by the burning of it.'

    So there! As she whips out another missive against the greedy capitalists.. seen any carabou Diane?

    Ewww.. those "catastrophies" all fit in one sentence?Very good!
    I'm sure Templeton and company are so pleased as their subscriptions drop, advertising drops and they tell their bosses.. "Aw shucks boss, it's that damn world wide web and those amateur bloggers that never seem to get it right, like we do here, because we're so professional! Yessireebob!

    www.fatheromalley.com for some sanity? Simplicity and debunking of myths? Try it.. you'll like it..

    love to you Diane!

    Father O'Malley.. now I must go out and rip the heads off of some prairie dogs and poor gasoline down their pristine habitat..

    Oil, hydrocarbons, yum, yum...

  • September 15, 2008

    8:52 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    fatheromalley writes:

    Oh, God the misinformation about global warming again..

    There is no "instantaneous" reduction in atmospheric temperature and solar activity. We are talking about a significant lag time here.
    Al Gore and the IPCC can't quite get their stories straight. CO2 variations 'lag' atmospheric temperature rises by as much as 600 years consistently through ice core and sediment readings. Sorry Sparky but no cigar. Greenleaf is actually BROWNleaf because less CO2 means less greenery..

    There is no scientific proof that CO2 levels currently are optimum for plant growth or man's survival. www.petitionproject.org where over 9000 doctorates have signed a petition disagreeing with the conclusions of the IPCC report and Al Gore.. silence?

    What an ego these people have. So proud that THEY control atmospheric temperatures. Aren't we important?

    And of course GOVERNMENT is riding in on a white horse to save us all. Only Mercury filled light bulbs for you Sparky.. man is baaaad, so baaaad. .CO2 is BAD!

    Greenland was named that for a reason Sparky, IT WAS GREEN!..

    So too the use of CO2 by greenhouse owners to invigorate plant growth.

    With the poor having lots of babies overwhelming the working people with "welfare entitlements" taxes, with world population exploding, MORE CO2 would help plant growth world wide! That CO2 you say is a "pollution" is the building block of all plants and HUMANS, Sparky..

    But Lenin's useful idiots will continue to twist scientific data, leave out the facts that refute their claims and continue on their way to their own enslavement all the while screaming, "Dolts, Deniers!"
    "You insensitive people!" Oh, please give me a break..

    Every claimed environmental catastrophy has never come to be..
    From global cooling, to the Kuwait oil fires, to the oil spills in the Oceans, to the current global warming where the antArctic is expanding, nothing, nada has ended up a catastrophy except in the minds of the real dolts and deniers, the whacko environmentalists where everything is a "crisis"..

    Sparky, have you ever heard the story about chicken little?
    Look in the mirror..

    Love to you, (even dolts get loved)
    Father O'Malley

    www.fatheromalley.com go to the global warming pages..open your eyes.. answering these points with misinformation is not really answering these points.. it's promoting an agenda, nothing more..