Quote of the day

Shamus Cooke reports that:

The U.S. heat wave is slowly shaking the foundations of American politics. It may take years for the deep rumble to evolve into an above ground, institution-shattering earthquake, but U.S. society has changed for good.

The heat wave has helped convince tens of millions of Americans that climate change is real, overpowering the fake science and right-wing media – funded by corporate cash – to convince Americans otherwise.

Republicans and Democrats alike also erect roadblocks to understanding climate change. By the politicians’ complete lack of action towards addressing the issue, the “climate change is fake” movement was strengthened, since Americans presumed that any sane government would be actively trying to address an issue that had the potential to destroy civilization.

But working people have finally made up their mind. A recent poll showed that70 percent of Americans now believe that climate change is real, up from 52 percent in 2010. And a growing number of people are recognizing that the warming of the planet is caused by human activity.

Business Week explains: “A record heat wave, drought and catastrophic wildfires are accomplishing what climate scientists could not: convincing a wide swath of Americans that global temperatures are rising.

It is sad that the elite in the United States could care a damn about global warming, ecological catastrophe and the socio-political causes which produces these outcomes. It is also sad because this unctuous and vain elite enjoys a secure existence with respect to the majority of America’s citizens. We have a managed democracy designed to undermine the ability common Americans ought to have and will need if they are to hold their leaders accountable. The commoners, of course, will suffer badly from the catastrophe. Members of America’s elite will also suffer although they will manage to live through the catastrophe in much better shape — for a while. Eventually, everyone will confront the vast burdens produced by America’s sloth and narcissism. That is an inescapable entailment of the impending global catastrophe. It will be a totalization which none could resist. Need I mention that this future is unlikely to be a moment in which one would want to live?

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• Record Heat Wave Pushes U.S. Belief in Climate Change Up to 70% – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Paul Krugman: Loading the Climate Dice (economistsview.typepad.com)
• Climate Change Drives These Extreme Weather Events [chart] (treehugger.com)
• Heat wave bakes eastern half of the US but is climate change to blame? (bfreenews.com)
• Change Is Here. Climate Change. – Huffington Post (blog) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Finally, a News Report on Extreme Weather & Climate Change Suitable for Grown-Ups (Video) (treehugger.com)
• Record Heat Wave Pushes U.S. Belief in Climate Change to 70% (prn.fm)
• Heat Wave Is No Reason For Alarm (athomesense.com)