Truth and trolls
With the publication of the new, fifth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the climate change denial trolls are predictably crawling out of their hiding places for one last round of regurgitated lies (“International climate change report says human cause ‘likely’, ” Oct. 1, page 9; “Climate change report is devastating, but skeptics see a conspiracy,” Oct. 1, page 9).
Scientific evidence is now so overwhelming and unequivocal that every scientific academy in the world and more than 95 percent of climate scientists agree with the conclusions of the IPCC that, without meaningful reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures will rise by 2°C to 5°C by the end of the century, freak weather events will increase and the oceans will become more acidic.
Laudably, the Taipei Times which used to print articles and letters by climate change deniers like Bjorn Lomborg, Jason Lamantia or Taiwan’s very own denialist supremo, Michael Fagan, has stopped printing such flat-earth
nonsense for the last couple of years. Nevertheless, the usual denialist claptrap has been pushed around the globe, produced by the right-wing media and the other usual neoliberal, free-market suspects.
Their logic is easy to understand: Every year which passes by without meaningful global legislation on curbing greenhouse emissions is a few more trillion dollars in the bank accounts of the fossil fuel companies. Now, wouldn’t you lie for a few cool trillion in the bank?
Owners of fossil fuel companies like the Koch brothers and Gina Rinehart certainly think so.
Soon, humanity will reach a breaking point. Will it make lying about and inaction on climate change a crime (http://tinyurl.com/2cu4pza, http://eradicatingecocide.com)? Or will humanity continue to look the other way and let future generations pick up our bill?
Let’s hope humanity will embrace a healthy, low-carbon future for its own sake and the sake of all the other species it shares the planet with.
Flora Faun
Taipei
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