Year 2, Month 4, Day 3: Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds

The Centre Daily Times, based in the improbably named State College, PA, runs a column by Amitabh Pal, noting that for several decades the US has been pretty much useless when it comes to meaningful governmental action on climate change. Not that this is a big surprise or anything.

There aren’t a lot of comments but most are of the “you-libs-are-gonna-get-what’s-coming-to-you-algore-is-fat-you’ll-get-my-SUV-when-you-pry-my-cold-dead-hands-off-it” variety.

Sent March 26:

Future generations will look back on this time with incredulity. As they contend with unpredictable weather patterns that render large-scale agriculture increasingly ineffective, our descendants won’t understand why — when we knew for decades what was going to happen to the Earth’s climate — we failed to stop our species’ profligate ways. As rising sea waters force them to relocate further inland, they’ll wonder: since Arctic ice melt as a consequence of the greenhouse effect was predicted in 1953, why did it take us well over half a century…to do nothing? From the next century, this era will seem utterly bizarre; how could the world’s most powerful economic actors decide it was in their best interest to ignore climatic reality and fund massive misinformation campaigns? How could ordinary citizens be so deceived that they ignored the evidence while it accumulated in front of their eyes? Future generations will surely ask these questions — when they’re not cursing us for our lassitude, apathy, and willful ignorance.

Warren Senders