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* > still actively denied by numerous interests more concerned over their trillions of dollars of accumulated wealth and power than over the fate of the planet

by scholia 10y ago

* > still actively denied by numerous interests more concerned over their trillions of dollars of accumulated wealth and power than over the fate of the planet they live on and the souls they share it with.*( Interests that are now controlling the US government....

dredmorbius 10y ago
And one of the more plausible conspiracy stories I've heard for who's benefitting from the whole situation. Need to track down that article...
- scholia 10y ago
  Not sure where the conspiracy is. However, Trump says climate change is a Chinese hoax and bullshit. Trump's advisor Myron Ebell says the environmental movement is "the greatest threat to freedom and prosperity in the modern world". Trump's head of the Environmental Protection Agency is Scott Pruitt, who believes the EPA shouldn't even exist. Trump's Secretary of State is Rex Tillerson, former boss of Exxon. Exxon is being investigated for spending decades ignoring its own scientists’ research, which tied fossil fuels to climate change. It also has a $500 billion oil deal with Putin, for which Trump will have to remove sanctions. Trump also says he's going to bring back "beautiful clean coal". So, under Trump, there's a green light to destroy the US environment and the whole planet for the pursuit of profit. Trump is using the presidency as a marketing platform to promote himself, his properties (including Trump Tower and Mar a lago), his daughter and in-laws. The GOP is using it to give very rich people $600bn in tax cuts while ensuring that (if its AHCA goes through), tens of thousands of ordinary Americans die because of a lack of health insurance. What's going on in broad daylight is bad enough. The behind-the-scenes corruption is probably worse.
  - dredmorbius 10y ago
    As I said, it was a specific article I had in mind. Turns out it's Charlie Stross (@cstross): http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2017/02/some-notes-on-the-worst-case-s.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2017/02/some-not... [I]if you have heavily invested in fossil fuels, time is running out to realize a return on your investment. Buying a US administration tailored to maximize ROI while fighting a rear-guard action against action on climate change and roll-out of a new, rival energy infrastructure is therefore rational (in business terms). Russia and the Putin angle is best understood as part of this; oil and gas exports accounted for 68% of Russia's export revenues in 2013. The possibility that Trump is personally heavily invested in Rosneft via shell proxies while being at loggerheads with Merkel might be an inversion of the normal state of affairs in international relations for the past 70 years but is entirely consistent with the big money picture: Germany is trying to push (heavily) for renewable power.... This, quite frankly, makes as much sense to me as anything else. If not considerably more. An: sometimes a conspiracy really is a conspiracy, and they really are out to get you.
    - scholia 10y ago
      Interesting piece. The move to exploit dirty energy while destroying the environment is clearly the centrepiece of Trumpism, as I said above. Whether Bannon is actually planning some sort of "final solution" is open to question. The real problem is that the world burns whether there's a conspiracy or not....
      - dredmorbius 10y ago
        There's a tendency toward this among all living things, and worse cases in the past: Great Oxygenation Event and Snowball Earth being an extreme case. William R Catton, Jr., made the point, in Overshoot, that assigning blame isn't particularly useful. It's the dynamics which drive the thing. At the same time, humans can, and do, know better. Yet we're headed down that same path. And there definitely appear to be those capitalising on the short-term view.

by scholia 10y ago

dredmorbius 10y ago

And one of the more plausible conspiracy stories I've heard for who's benefitting from the whole situation. Need to track down that article...

scholia 10y ago
Not sure where the conspiracy is. However, Trump says climate change is a Chinese hoax and bullshit. Trump's advisor Myron Ebell says the environmental movement is "the greatest threat to freedom and prosperity in the modern world". Trump's head of the Environmental Protection Agency is Scott Pruitt, who believes the EPA shouldn't even exist. Trump's Secretary of State is Rex Tillerson, former boss of Exxon. Exxon is being investigated for spending decades ignoring its own scientists’ research, which tied fossil fuels to climate change. It also has a $500 billion oil deal with Putin, for which Trump will have to remove sanctions. Trump also says he's going to bring back "beautiful clean coal". So, under Trump, there's a green light to destroy the US environment and the whole planet for the pursuit of profit. Trump is using the presidency as a marketing platform to promote himself, his properties (including Trump Tower and Mar a lago), his daughter and in-laws. The GOP is using it to give very rich people $600bn in tax cuts while ensuring that (if its AHCA goes through), tens of thousands of ordinary Americans die because of a lack of health insurance. What's going on in broad daylight is bad enough. The behind-the-scenes corruption is probably worse.
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  As I said, it was a specific article I had in mind. Turns out it's Charlie Stross (@cstross): http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2017/02/some-notes-on-the-worst-case-s.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2017/02/some-not... [I]if you have heavily invested in fossil fuels, time is running out to realize a return on your investment. Buying a US administration tailored to maximize ROI while fighting a rear-guard action against action on climate change and roll-out of a new, rival energy infrastructure is therefore rational (in business terms). Russia and the Putin angle is best understood as part of this; oil and gas exports accounted for 68% of Russia's export revenues in 2013. The possibility that Trump is personally heavily invested in Rosneft via shell proxies while being at loggerheads with Merkel might be an inversion of the normal state of affairs in international relations for the past 70 years but is entirely consistent with the big money picture: Germany is trying to push (heavily) for renewable power.... This, quite frankly, makes as much sense to me as anything else. If not considerably more. An: sometimes a conspiracy really is a conspiracy, and they really are out to get you.
  - scholia 10y ago
    Interesting piece. The move to exploit dirty energy while destroying the environment is clearly the centrepiece of Trumpism, as I said above. Whether Bannon is actually planning some sort of "final solution" is open to question. The real problem is that the world burns whether there's a conspiracy or not....
    - dredmorbius 10y ago
      There's a tendency toward this among all living things, and worse cases in the past: Great Oxygenation Event and Snowball Earth being an extreme case. William R Catton, Jr., made the point, in Overshoot, that assigning blame isn't particularly useful. It's the dynamics which drive the thing. At the same time, humans can, and do, know better. Yet we're headed down that same path. And there definitely appear to be those capitalising on the short-term view.