Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Guardian contributor Megan Mayhew Bergman has written a series of columns about why she thinks Southerners don’t get the climate crisis.
What I learned writing about climate change and the US south for a year
I crisscrossed a region ā my own ā that is mired in a culture of denial and delay. The conversation on the climate crisis has not changed fast enough.
Megan Mayhew Bergman
Wed 7 Aug 2019 20.00 AEST…
I thought that Hurricane Florence might serve as a turning point in the conversation about the realities of climate change in a region still mired in a culture of denial and delay. After a year of research and reporting, I am not convinced that the conversation has changed fast enough, if much at all. Here in Beaufort, like Miami and Charleston, I encounter deniers, continued waterfront development, hurricane damage and blistering temperatures.
…
I saw more of the south while reporting for this column than I ever saw in my 30 years of living there. My travel reinforced what I already knew: there is no one south. In 2019 it is multitudinous, diverse and still reckoning with its plantation economy and cruel social history. It has PhDs, evangelicals, Trump enthusiasts, environmentalists, artists and activists. Itās this very tension that has often made the south the genesis of social movements; one hopes it might happen again, and soon.
Social and environmental racism, income inequality and poverty are as present as they have ever been, and are only weaponized by climate change, as I reported from Virginia and Natchez, Mississippi.
…
What does a better and more inclusive conversation look like? Non-traditional environmentalists can be critical allies in addressing the culture of climate change denial below the Mason-Dixon Line, like hunters in Arkansas and evangelical Christians in places like St Simons, Georgia. But too often, the perspectives and interests of frontline communities are ignored, further exacerbating the environmental racism so pervasive in the south.
…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/07/climate-change-us-south-what-i-learned-writing-about-for-a-year
One theme which continues to shock me is how intolerant many allegedly inclusive green liberals are. If you disagree with them about climate change, they say all sorts of vile things about your views and your culture, even if they grew up in that culture as Megan did.
From their perspective — they accept a package deal ideology where you must be a “remainer”, you must vote for leftist politicians, you must support the wars the leftists support, you must accept “climate crisis”, you must think white supremacy everywhere, you must accept and hate “white privilege”, you must demand censorship of “hate speech” — including the hate of “deniers” of climate change. Disagreement with any of these points is violence. Disagreeing with a claim of climate oppression is violence. Not accepting guilt as an evil white is violence. Not being willing to accept unreasonable taxation to pay for socialist programs is violence.
They would love to simply get rid of us all if they could. They do not condone disagreement and they seriously think that the very act of disagreement is a form of violence.
They assume anyone that does not accept their ideology is ignorant and needs to be educated. If they reject the programming they assume its because that person is immoral and a racist, sexist, bigoted, deplorable, monster. Since anyone that rejects their ideology is akin to Nazis — they feel justified to do anything anything and say anything to destroy these sinners. They are puritanical religious zealots for a secular leftist pseudo-religion.
As a lifelong atheist and skeptic – I have a pretty good eye for seeing the earmarks of a cult. The modern left is a cult.
As a lifelong Christian and skeptic ā I have a pretty good eye for seeing the earmarks of a cult. The modern left is a cult.
See … Christians and atheists can agree on crucial socio-political issues (as I agree with your post entirely). BTW … the entire notion of āEnvironmental Justiceā is just so much Socialist nonsense intended to transfer wealth from rich to poor. The historic results of those attempts are littered with mountains of skulls.
Kenji, I agree with everything except your last sentence – it isn’t about transferring wealth from the rich to the poor, it’s about transferring wealth from the poor an middle class to the rich.
Rhoda R – yes and no. It is ostensibly about transferring wealth from rich to poor, but everywhere it has been tried the result has been transfer of wealth from poor to rich. But note that the rich then aren’t necessarily the ones who were rich in the first place – they are the ones running the system.
I rather like Churchill’s comment, though it isn’t quite correct: Capitalism delivers wealth unequally; socialism delivers misery equally. (Maybe not Churchill’s exact wording).
Wealthy people tend to fight back? Who knew!
I am a Christian, and having devoted effort to examining this, along the lines I learned with studies in epistemology, I agree that the Green Movement largely is a Cult.
As noted, a hallmark of a cult is that you cannot examine or question the Belief system. Sadly, a great portion of people in Christianity are opposed to questioning the faith, but many of us do carry out strong examinations of the veracity of our faith. In my Bible study class, we openly review the Bible, book by book, verse by verse. We do not hide away from any of it, or wait for anyone to approve what we examine.
In my view, there is such as thing as Environmental Justice. Those with power in business are able to wine and dine those with power in government when plans are getting in place to locate a polluting industry. Traditionally, affected communities have had absolutely no involvement in such processes. Communities with more political savvy and political clout catch wind of such plans, and will oppose a location of some polluting industry. These stakeholders are successful in NIMBY. Not all communities are successful this way.
There is a lot of history of polluting industry locating in areas where the community is poor and African American. If elected representatives start to ask questions or complain, the rep can be disregarded as merely representing a modest community, in terms of votes and political power. The rep must get up to speed and understand a lot of geology, etc. Not too common or likely by most locally elected reps.
Polluting companies purposefully selecting to locate in minority areas, for purposes of political expediency/low NIMBY challenge, illustrates the case for environmental justice.
Let’s not pretend big business polluting companies would not play this game, given the chance.
History maybe, but does it happen NOW? Or any time in the last 50 years?
Here in Indiana the Poor African American areas are decidedly urban. The ‘South Side’ of most of the larger cities, though that’s a generalization. And hardly anyone builds anything in those areas, much less the kind of Industrial area that would be the source of any significant real pollution.
Those kind of factories usually get built these days outside of town, close to a major highway. Ideally you want close enough to town that you workforce can get there with a half hour drive or less, but all the undesirables (poor people, city code enforcers, and anybody else you don’t really want wandering in) are discouraged from making the trip.
Remember, the days of factories filled with near homeless workers are long gone (at least in the First World), most modern factory and Industrial workers are some of the best paid in their country. They can afford to drive to work wherever it would be most convenient to put the place. And the best way to beat NIMBY is to go where there aren’t many Back Yards in the first place.
The author clearly did not study American history.
Industries were not created in poor communities; the “poor” (largely African American) moved from the agricultural south to industrial cities like Detroit and Chicago.
When industries died in those areas (the “why” is a subject for another discussion), the more affluent could move out (many in my community in South Carolina are former Detroit managers and executives) while the poor often do not have the resources to relocate.
The concept of “environmental injustice” is meaningless; it describes a result of many complex factors – not something caused by some group’s oppressive or racially biased policies against another.
Schitzree,
Nice synopsis of Indiana.
I have worked in the State my entire career in the environmental field including water resources, landfills, and mining (big targets of NIMBY). My first experiences with the term Environmental Justice was in the 1990s. Neighborhoods in northwest Indiana identified as being impacted by “big” polluters were often in neighborhoods that were considered middle class prior to and into the 1960s. The poorly defined termed resulted in long delays in clean up plans of large projects like the dredging of contaminated sediment in the Grand Calumet River with minimal changes to the original scheme.
In addition, the neighborhoods in question grew up around heavy industry that provided the jobs that built a middle class life at a time when most people walked to work. I will not even pretend that those industries did not pollute nor to understand all the circumstances that drove the social-economic changes to the neighborhoods in close proximity to heavy industry, but the industry was there before those changes happened. There have been big improvements in the environment: some related to better understanding, some related to regulation, some related to closures, but mostly due to a lot of hard work by the people of the State of Indiana.
Industry locates where land is cheap. No evil intentions involved.
There is no need to invoke racism and classism to explain it.
TheLastDemocrat
Agreed, with the addition that a cult keeps people in line using something called “mind-guarding”. This involves trying to prevent the follower from reading or experiencing anything contradictory, even to the extent of the follower disbelieving their own inclinations to consider all evidence.
The yelling about ” deniers” is not so much about convincing the “opponent’ as demonstrating what will happen to a follower if they are considering disapproved thoughts.
Mind-guards spring into action as soon as they hear a conversation that might tend to lead to independence of thought, leading inevitably to questions about favoured stances. The Communist Party does this by shaming, calling people “Trots” and other pejorative labels associated with structured opposition to the “chosen path”.
Some religious groups use “apostate” and “misled by da debbil”. Note that in the last case, blame is attributed to an external party. Similarly someone who learns to doubt hyperbolic climate catastrophes is supposedly misled by the deniers who are granted super-human attributes of foil and foible. Cults always imagine super-human opponents.
“As noted, a hallmark of a cult is that you cannot examine or question the Belief system.”
I posted earlier a slightly off-topic link to Michael Moore questioning renewable energy:
https://apnews.com/933b49681b0d47d3a005d356f35251ab
We can see what happens to this semi-questioning of the Belief system by one of their heroes. My prediction is that although it appeared on AP, it will be buried without trace by the believers, although I will be sure to keep exhuming the body to wreck these cultists’ days. I’m sure I’m not alone in considering this a kind of sport.
‘Big business’ does not pollute for fun since pollution= waste= expense. CO2 emissions are wasteful and I’ve never encountered a business that didn’t want to save money on energy costs. Show them a cheaper, better, cleaner form of energy and they’ll take it- they’re not monsters. Or- just tax the living hell out of them and drive them out of existence, although I’m not sure where this will get you.
The Last Democrat
I don’t agree with your statement that the Industry was locating in the areas of the minorities. “There is a lot of history of polluting industry locating in areas where the community is poor and African American.” These areas were previously occupied by middle class blue collar working people mostly white and recent immigrants about the time minorities started migrating from the South for JOBS. I grew up in such an area where the soot was deposited on your car every morning. True they are now occupied by minorities but that is because most of us living in row homes increased our wealth and moved into our dream homes in the suburbs. Over my career, I visited many of those industries you talk about. The surrounding communities are old, many walked to work where I lived because they had no need for a car. Today many of those industries have shut down because of government policies making it more attractive to have things made overseas.
I have not seen any evidence of new industry locating in these old communities, there are probably exceptions. In fact the city I grew up in was teaming with jobs and industry, no more.
Which would have been precisely my reply if you hadnāt got there first. But I donāt see cultism as being unique to the Left. Extreme āno-dealā Brexiteers also demonstrate all the behaviours of a cult as do the extreme climate fanatics. Anything that deviates even 0.5Ā° from the core belief system is to be considered anathema and if ever the Leftist/Rightest/ Climate cults get to be in positions of power then the traditional punishments of excommunication, casting out from society, outlawry (in its literal sense that you have no recourse to law and no-one is obliged to act licitly towards you) seem more than probable.
We are entering dangerous waters.
We are entering dangerous waters.
Indeed we are, particularly when one intentionally conflates cause and effect in order to generalise.
Believing that leaving even without a deal, is better than staying, makes one a cultist.
Really?
Yes, as like all cultists, anybody who puts forwards information contrary to their beliefs, is labelled, in this case as a “Remoaner”, with contrary information being part of “Project Fear”.
Their primary sources of information demonise the EU, labelling it “Tyrannical” and “Undemocratic”.
Any alternative, practical arrangement is labelled “BRINO” & as such, is an impure, heretical thought, Proponents of “BRINO” are denigrated .
There’s a conspiracy to keep us tied to an EU that is in imminent danger of collapse, we should leave immediately & laugh at those who stay, as they fall into anarchy & poverty.
Do I exaggerate? If you think so, go read “Guido Fawkes”.
Went to public university in the early seventies. Saw lots of cults in operation, almost got sucked into one myself. Many times Iāve reflected how the true believers in climate change think and behave in a cult-like manner.
A member of one cult, recognises another cult.
Visions of concentrations camps dance in their heads complete with gas chambers for all of the evil deniers.
Only gases that do not emit any c02 allowed in those chambers.
Better yet use that evil gas to complete the deed! Those deniers will be shown how bad it is!!
Drake: “Better yet use that evil gas [CO2] to complete the deed! Those deniers will be shown how bad it is!!”
I challenge you to see how long you can go without consuming any Carbon that was ultimately sourced from CO2.
– vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, i.e. plants all utilize photosynthesis to extract Carbon from CO2
– herbivores consume plants (see above)
– carnivores consume herbivores which consume plants (see above)
– carbonated beverages contain CO2
Carbon Based Life Forms participate in the Carbon Cycle of Life and the Carbon Cycle of Life cannot complete without CO2.
CO2 feeds life.
You see it all the time people define things as they see them not as how they are or actually defined. Why it comes up so much with Climate Science is because it covers a wide range of fields from physics, geology, economics, engineering and biology most are out of there depth somewhere. So what happens is they take a view which is just a belief from others it is not something they actually understand.
If you want a funny discussion for example ask a lefty like Loydo or Nick Stokes to explain “fair” in emission control? That questions covers a huge number of fields which each have there own arguments but they can’t think beyond the answer they have been told.
Another interesting one is ask them if China does decide to put down riots in Hong Kong by force does it effect climate change and emission control policy?
Yes I’ve tried to ‘unpack’ the CAGW ‘package’ to discuss details when engaging in conversations with “believers”
In most cases, they just won’t entertain ANY divergence from “the package” (“THE science”; 100% wind & solar; 100% electric vehicles; etc, etc)
The CAGW disciples are no different than those who totally accepted (and argued for) the “virgin conception” tenet of the catholic religion.
Follow the links in the above article to have a gander at some of the other recent stuff she has written on the subject of “climate change”.
But only if you are in a good mood.
This woman has written articles questioning why anyone is still living in the south, what with the climate crisis and all, how people in Florida are not noticing their state being submerged under the waves even as she speaks, and lots more about how hurricanes are proof of CAGW.
Not a bad looking woman, but she is drowning in the Kool-Aid.
In her mind, having a conversation about climate change means she tells people what the facts are, and if they disagree then they are wrong, period.
She speaks in the present tense about “Florida drowning”, even after living for several months in Miami, where any jackass can see that the ocean is exactly where it has always been. There is not a single place that is “drowning”, or that even has any visually detectable change in the level of the sea.
Facts and evidence mean nothing to people like this.
They have been told what to think, and they will likely never ever consider the possibility they are wrong, let alone admit to themselves they have been duped.
It is nearly impossible for someone who thinks of themselves as intellectually superior to EVER acknowledge any information that would cast doubt on this self image.
Their brain will invent actual hallucinations rather than have their ego be confronted with such a humbling experience.
Ha! Yes I live on another coastal region in the Gulf South, as does my entire extended family, many of whom drive boats or fish for a living. People are writing articles all the time about how our small towns are drowning or washing away? News to us as we are still living there?
Well said. But there’s also the delusion factor. A mental construct (climate change) has the ability to “weaponize” things. Or is it that deniers are weaponizing climate change? (I really don’t want to expend the time or synapses to wade through the cesspool of their reasoning) This is really mass hysteria on a biblical scale. If things are really this imminently disastrous it’s not that much of a leap of thought to begin “removing” the deniers in the way of climate progress. Btw: I live in Ontario Canada and weather wise it’s been a beautiful summer. Since the beginning of this impending climate apocalypse I have yet to see any actual sign of it. But that’s because it doesn’t actual begin in the weather…it begins in the mind.
Bergman heard exactly what she wanted to hear and projected her own biases onto everyone else. This is the basis of false news and is a component of yellow journalism.
That’s right, Bergman is seeing what she expects to see.
She apparently doesn’t have much respect for the intelligence of her fellow southerners. I wonder if it ever crossed her mind that those good ole boys and girls might know something she doesn’t know.
She keeps useing that word. I do not think it means what she thinks it means.
~Āæ~
One way “conversation” is more like a lecture. She only wants to hear her own voice.
We’ve seen these people so many. ‘Yada yada racism blistering hot crisis’. They go complain on waterfront development as if it were their own. Hey, come here North, there’s awful lot of snow, ice, sleet, slush, new ice, pack ice, hard snow, fluffy snow, powder snow here, and an awesome short summer with a single 85F day. Come enjoy the not-blistering winter. You can write your opinion pieces here, though swimming in open waters in here might mean you’d need an axe to start with a hole to frozen waters.
Welcome, honestly, if you suffer from the so blistering hot South and its huntable deplorables, who don’t converse to your enjoyment.
She really seems surprised that summers are hot in the South.
Me thinks Megan B is simply trying to impress her Vermont associates by trying to deny her ā30 year southern Appalachian rootsā.
What she doesnāt realize is, moving out of the āhillsā doesnāt erase oneās āhillbillyā heritage in the minds of the elite thinking social/educational phonies. .
What she doesnāt realize is, moving out of the āhillsā doesnāt erase oneās āhillbillyā heritage in the minds of the elite thinking social/educational phonies. .
What it apparently has done is erase the generations of skeptical folk wisdom she should have retained.
“I saw more of the south while reporting for this column than I ever saw in my 30 years of living there.”
So she really has no reference point but it is worse than she thought.
Bergman never forgot her heritage ā¦ā¦. but when her Vermont peers/associates requested she write a report about the “environmental mindset” of the Appalachian people ā¦.. she had to plead ignorance to CHA.
Had an experience last weekend where a very subtle message was sent by Dr. Ben Carson on complimenting his granddaughter for joining the Trump Women supporters group. We shared the message on Facebook and within an hour it was removed. Message from Carson below:
We are very proud of our daughter-in-law, Merlynn Carson, who has joined the Trump Womenās Board for the campaign. We hope more young people will get involved with helping to right the course of our country in the future. Regardless of oneās political affiliation, it is so important that we educate ourselves about the issues so that we cannot be easily manipulated and deceived. The forces that want to change our country in a fundamental way are clever and strategically take advantage people who do not study the issues for themselves. We are fighting not only for today, but also for our children and their children and all of those who come after us.
https://www.facebook.com/704375189/posts/10157993872995190/
My point, the true facts do not get published or disseminated except by Blogs such as this. The Liberals control the Mainstream News and present only the Politically Correct side of issues. Thank you for your post!
Facebook is way bigger than any of the mainstream media (MSM) companies. link
Some bloggers have bigger audiences than anybody on the MSM. link
Just saying.
I was under the impression that the likes of Fox News presented the President’s view of things, pretty much – is that no longer ‘mainstream’?
Fox News in its own terminology appears to distance itself from the main stream, like the leftist CNN, the Guardian, and the NYT. The main stream, on the other hand, has been distancing itself from Fox News, apparently fearing that Fox reveals the deeply partisan approach of the main stream.
Fox frequently publishes critic against Trump, so it’s not perfect but the second best. š
Obviously the mainstream spelling might differ from mine.
“Fox frequently publishes critic against Trump, so itās not perfect”
So are you saying if a news company publishes something negative about Trump it is behaving less than “perfectly?”
Sure, love.
It never was, except in Griffland.
Griff. Fox News is a voice in the wilderness. But it’s a very loud voice and a lot of people like what it’s saying. Wiley old Fox.
On all Fox shows with panels, usually one person (at least) from the liberal/Democratic, etc. side is represented. Many of their news interviews have 2 individuals side by side on camera with opposing viewpoints, which how Fox can claim “Fair and Balanced:
If you look at the other so called news stations (CNN, MSNBC), you see much, much less representation of differing viewpoints being presented. It’s all the same folks.
Fox has Juan Williams (fired from so-called balanced NPR for being on Fox) and now Donna Brazile, who often has the opportunity to present her views on stand-alone interviews.’
Yes, Fox has commentators who are conservative. But some of them are really funny!
To be fair Fox does have Chris Wallace and a couple of others who present more unbiased reporting. But I have to laugh at the bleating from some here. They have very short memories. I watch a range of media sources and Fox (in the same way CNN does now with Trump) would never give Obama a break. They didn’t seem to object to the biased reporting then.
It’s time for the president and congress to crack down on these social media platforms. They are censoring the news to favor one political party and they should be forced to stop doing this, or at the least, have the light shone on their activities. They think they are “Masters of the Univese”. We should show them they are not.
One of the first tactics the authoritarians engage in to gain and keep power is to shut down the conversation of the oppostion by hook or by crook. That’s what is happening right now with Social Media and the Leftwing News Media.
These Leftwing Social Media monopolies should be broken up.
The Left is now using charges of Racism to shut down their opponent’s conversation with the public, and to again promote more gun control legislation; Biden has gone so far as to say that if he wins presidential office he is coming after “your” assault weapons. And of course they do this because they’ve lost the argument on facts – they can’t win, so they resort to ad hominem attacks of racism, and obfuscating with irrelevant disinformation.
The left has redefined assault rifle down so much that any weapon that doesn’t have to be re-loaded between each firing qualifies.
The political spectrum as defined by the left.
Communism – Socialism – Far Right – Extreme Right.
“Itās time for the president and congress to crack down on these social media platforms. ”
Isn’t that what happens in Trumps “best fwends” county North Korea?
Dare I say, Iām pretty sure young Megan never actually grew up. Sheās terrified of what the rest of us refer to as āweatherā, and so convinced of her very rightness, she canāt see anything else. As they say, fanatics canāt see ANYTHING from another point of view.
Yep, her whole being seems to be predicated upon the fact that there is a “climate crisis”.
There isn’t one in the real world.
The “climate crisis” is more properly identified as a “mental health crisis”, afflicting the consensus believers to a greater or lesser extent.
The author mentions the horses on Shackleford Banks to try to drive home some point. While there once I saw the biggest piles of horse poo I had ever seen. It was astonishing. They were so massive it was like they took a dump once a year. The only thing that even comes close in size is this author’s pile of crap article.
I have dated liberal women, they go on and on about how tolerant they are, but as soon as you disagree with them they show they are really very intolerant, they are hypocrites.
Leftists don’t have any tolerance for anything or anyone who challenges their beliefs. They think they have the moral highground and the correct view of reality and God help you if you disagree with them because they will see you as an enemy that needs to be neutralized by any means necessary. You are a danger to their belief system and that cannot be tolerated. That’s what Trump is, a danger to their belief system. A big danger, and they know it, and that’s another reason they go after him with everything they can muster.
But it’s like water off a duck’s back: Trump is pushing 50 percent approval despite the best efforts of the Democrats and the Leftwing Media over the last three years.
I think the Left in the United States and in the other Western democracies have gone stark raving insane. There’s an old saying about the Madness of Crowds” which basically says people go mad (insane) in crowds, and come to their senses one at a time.
When I would read those words I always thought you had to be a member of a physical crowd in order to be overwhelmed with madness, because it’s like a riot, where a gathering of people can act with a singlemindedness, almost as one individual over some goal.
I inadvertently got caught up in a small riot in Honolulu (at what used to be the Shell) once and was amazed at my own reaction. I would never have thought that something like that would emotionally affect me, but it did, although I maintained enough control that I didn’t do anything foolish or illegal.
My buddy, who is one of the most laid-back guys you could meet, actually got caught up in the riot to the point that he climbed a chainlink fence (the cops were behind the chainlink fence trying to keep the rioters outside from tearing it down and coming inside). My friend got over the fence, I don’t know what he thought he was going to do once he got over there (the emotion of the moment) and he was promptly maced by the police and they threw him back over the fence!
Anyway, to relate that to today, I think we don’t need be in physical crowds to go crazy anymore because we have a virtual crowd on the internet that is driving a good percentage of the population mad, mainly on the Left.
College educated liberal women are monsters. Theyāre the worst of the worst. I canāt tell you how many women have confided in me that they would prefer their sons try dating women who have to work for a living instead of these ironically most-privileged children of rich people. Look at all of the really, really messy divorces in your local area.
Biatches be cray-cray.
They are concerned about the progress of prophecy and diversity. The practice of “science” outside the near-domain, and the debasement of individuals through color judgments (e.g. racism), respectively. That said, “too many white girls next door”, right, Guardian? They need to do a thorough introspection, and lose their Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic quasi-religion.
Ah yes, flogging white Southerners for their alleged indifference to climate change. How creative! How original! Couple that to inaccurate statements like, “Income inequality and poverty are as present as they have ever been,” and you end up with a sad, murky stew of guilt-tripping, non-science, and non-progress.
100 years ago, much of the South was still without electricity, barefoot country folk were infested with hookworm, and millions of seasonal laborers picked cotton by hand. Those hardships are gone now, replaced by modern improvements. If Ms. Bergman grew up there, doesn’t she know that? I recently visited Atlanta, which is more integrated than any Northern city I can think of.
As for the allegedly imminent catastrophe of climate change, essayists like Ms. Bergman harp on the perils of carbon dioxide, as if it were the only factor worth discussing, and as if CO2 weren’t an atmospheric gas necessary to all life. No one knows what the optimum CO2 level is. Plus, alarmists make the mistake of mentioning individual weather events within the range of normal, as if they “prove” anything, which they don’t.
Harping on CO2 emissions while omitting the fact that China has added more coal capacity in the last 20 years than the U.S. has in total, then insisting that U.S. regulations can save the world, is like two fleas arguing over which one owns the dog. China also has 100 million more people living close to sea level than the U.S. does, and a climate that “naturally” runs to greater extremes. Does Ms. Bergman think the Chinese are stupid, in denial, or racist?
No mention either, of nuclear power, the world’s largest source of electric generation that does not emit CO2. Does Ms. Bergman believe coal, gas, and nuke-hating Americans can save the world no matter what the other 96% of the world’s people do?
The political Left are one trick ponies. And the trick is vile and vicious.
It always was; and always will be. If you’re not in agreement with the meme du jour (always radical; always anti establishment), then you’re free game.
All we have to remember about the Left, whatever hobby horse they’re riding, is that their default position is authoritarianism.
Revolutionary France, Communism, Nazism and Fascism, the greatest mass killers of the past 250 years have all been diseases of the political Left.
And before anyone squeals Nazism is politically Right, go and do some research.
We should be very afraid of the Left’s riding the Climate Change bandwagon. Very, very afraid.
What Bergman missed completely is that those of us in the South have a good bit more common sense that anyone on the Left but especially her. Also most Southerner tend towards skepticism most especially if the government is involved. Both common sense and skepticism drives those on the Left nuts. They have spent years through our education system to eliminate both if at all possible.
Yes . You dropped that round right down the hatch of the target vehicle !
š
+42 ++ :<)
Thatās why they hate you. Itās where progressivism has always died and will again. Itās also why theyāre trying everything they can to disarm you.
I didn’t know the south of England was like that.
That’s true. Guardian is propaganda press based in England, projecting their wonts and bigotry globally, but especially to America, which remains a delectable fruit among the world’s nations.
Wow, scorching heat in the South. Why, that never happened before, bless her little heart.
Nice job smearing an entire culture and society as backwards, knuckle dragging bohunks just because they don’t swallow the Green Blob propaganda hook, line, and sinker. Not being gullible is a sin now to the Left.
By the way, I was born and raised in the South, still live here. Guess my physics degree and experience doing atmospheric modeling for a DoD project don’t count since I don’t have the “right” opinions and am one of those knuckle dragging Southerners.
As the bumper sticker says, We Don’t Car How Y’all Do It Up Nawth, or in the UK, or anywhere else.
I have the pleasure of working with several Southerners.
I know what it means when you say “Bless her little heart”. š
As for the article, a waste of ink (or electrons, whatever the case).
Heh…I knew some would understand. I realize that back when I did that modeling, I was unduly burdened by my customer requiring that the predictions of my model actually, you know, predicted, that is, matched reality. When my model fell short, I had to modify the model until it was correct, I wasn’t able to say “who you going to believe, my beautiful model or your own lying eyes” or adjust the real world data to match my model. Oh the humanity!
And anyone who thinks Pascagoula is a sleepy little town has never lived there …
š
I enjoy that Ray Stevens song about Pascagoula.
Thank you for my smile of the day. ‘Bless her little heart.’ indeed.
Blistering heat is what she said, which is clearly a lie.
I challenge her to show a single person who has ever been blistered merely from the air temp of a southern state.
The South, where saying “Aren’t you just special” isn’t a compliment.
You said it. Born, raised educated in the South.
I’ve heard nothing but how dumb Southerners are, how racist they are, etc for all of my life. I’m responsible for every evil in the world since 1200 BC.
Frankly, when I hear crap like this self-fulfillment of existing prejudices, I just turn it off.
Megan might claim some connection with Dixie, but fortunately she has moved to more “liberal” parts, thereby raising the average intelligence of both regions.
I commented on a global warming article in the Guardian last week – adhered to their posting guidelines but post was removed after a few minutes as I disagreed with the gist of the article. āNuff said about the Guardian.
Someone get her a helmet so that maybe that concussion will have time to heal.
The problem is the censors: They are all leftist ideologues.
What job at NPR is she angling for?
I am from the deep south
[South-Africa]
click on my name to read my report to understand why I don’t believe in man made global warming anymore
With respect Henry, perhaps what you mean is “The data does not support the conclusion that ……”
Leave the religious language to the cultists where it belongs.
All they have left are insults and temper tantrums.
From Sanders and Warren (Mr and Mrs Angry) all the way down.
Don’t you mean temperature tantrums.
Tucson was hot this summer so is my wife
God bless us all let the lefties fall
I am a true Son if the South, my family having homesteaded in Mississippi in the early 1800s. Living near the Mississippi gulf coast I survived both Camille and Frederick. I worked on road crews during the summer under conditions that would probably kill me now. I have visited as much of the South and am still discovering itās beauty and wonderful inhabitants. I now live in Kentucky. The temperature is no hotter than it used to be. The storms are no stronger than they used to be. The bugs are no stingier than they used to be. Iām just getting older and less able to tolerate them.
The author claims the South as her āregionā then shows her abysmal ignorance and dismissal of the people who live there. With apologies to my very good friend Steve who is a native of Vermont, the woman needs to stay there and leave us ignorant Southern deniers alone.
Notice Bergman says she has girls. Why does a leftist climate alarmist have kids? Oh wait, it is okay for liberals to have kids, just not you little unwashed people.
From Russia, Russia, Russia to Racist, Racist, Racist. The Left’s new mantra.
Good commies should love Russia, but now they call conservatives too Russian. What irony. First they are shamed of their ‘white’ ‘race’, then they’ll tell we’re racists.
And another thing! She says she is traveling around…how? By bicycle I hope, no I bet by car, and using fossil fuel to do it, the HYPOCRITE. She seems to be surprised that it is hot (96 F) in the south in the summer, maybe she should move to Alaska. Or maybe she should go on a world tour (fly first class) and preach to all the little people to stop using fossil fuels.
John, she’s also only 30 years old and raised when air conditioning was well established and commonplace; the rule rather than the exception.
Those of us in our 50s, 60s, and up were raised in a time where A/C was a rare exception and not the rule. I didn’t get my first airconditioned car until I was 34. The wife and I had a starter and a move-up home before we bought our 3rd house that had central air.
How did I ever survive summers down near Victoria Texas when I was a kid, barefoot no less?
I am 65 and grew up in Georgia, without AC until my Mom got a couple of window units in the 1980s, after my Dad passed. My sister and I each had a bedroom in the attic and there wasn’t even an attic fan until the early 1970s. My bedroom had windows on three sides, but – before the attic fan – if there ain’t no breeze, you almost might as well have had no windows. I tried a window fan, but I fell asleep with it on and early the next morning, the smell of smoke awakened me. The motor had frozen up and it was “hummin’ and smokin'” when I unplugged it and kicked it out the window. We somehow survived the heat.
And our parents didn’t get their first new car with AC until 1968, after they had been married 20 years.
“Environmental racism” – two for the price of one! I don’t whether to laugh, cry, or vomit.
I can get my ahead around the concept of ‘environmental justice’ – some problems hurt the poor more than the rich – but environmental racism? The weather discriminates by race? The sun shines only on the whites? What on earth is she trying to say?
I wonder if these are just keywords to get her article higher up the search ratings, or to get her more brownie points.
They all eat from the same trough and regurgitate the same talking points. There is no critical thought involved. They know what their editors expect, and they won’t have a job if they deviate from script.
The only injustice I can think of offhand would be the >billion people who have little to no access to reliable, adequate energy to lift them out of poverty, which is why I call the alarmist plan to keep it that way the worst kind of neocolonialism. As for your second paragraph, I think yes and yes. š
The Left has racism broken down into numerous categories now. They want to spread their hate speech to all areas of life.
The elitist arrogance and ignorance expressed by Megan Mayhew Bergman in her Guardian screed illustrates full well the political foundation of her unfounded cries of impending doom from ‘climate change’. The childish certainty of her baseless assertions is endemic to the ‘social justice warrior’ mind set. Her’s are not the writings or actions of a disciplined, wise, and rational mind.
“Environmental racism” ? Seriously?! If ever there was a pompous pre-set judgement of people this is it! No view except that of the author is acceptable- all others are intolerable and worthy of despicable name calling. Despite all the exposed lies, manipulation Bad, bad, bad, bad record on climate predictions these true believerse are intolerant to the point of disbelief.
The People of the South have strong āregional memoryā reinforced by a robust oral and spoken tradition. Events of various kinds, including weather, are retold and passed on to succeeding generations, which when mixed with a natural skepticism, make it harder to convince folks thatās itās hotter, wetter, more stormy, etc. now than in the past.
The Scientific Method requires more than conjecture or speculation. It requires Proof that is beyond reproach. My children and grandchildren, plus nieces, nephews, cousins, etc.(and friends) get that lesson from me (and others). Result: one becomes many.
“We do not need to hear another word from deniers, or cater to their anti-science position.”
So much for “conversation. What a moron, and hypocrite.
What race is the environment and how can one be racist towards it?
The left’s use of the race card is getting more and more absurd every day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_racism
Most normal people call it being enviromentally responsible but the nutcase socialist left has to try to connect it back to big bad capitalists. If its bad it’s our fault and we must pay.
OH!
So it is cutting down the trees of those ethnically different from you and then doubling down by dumping your waste in the newly cleared location?
I was honestly wondering if was something like refusing to serve deciduous trees in bars and refusing conifers the vote.
(Don’t start me on those eucalyptus! Doing nothing all day except clogging the gutters and vandalising cars!)
As a lifelong Masshole and former Useful Idiot democrat I can state from experience that for decades southerners have been falsely portrayed as dumb racists by the globalist media; but in truth they know better than the rest of the country what’s going on under our noses. Some of the best citizen journalists are from the deep south and I had to get over my conditioned bigotry, hearing their lyrical drawl as dimwitted, to appreciate their stunning insights.
Everything is upside down. Malignant globalist forces have infiltrated the organs of power and the big lie rules. Smoke & mirrors. The Luciferian principle. Once we fully realize it, it will fall away. Only our belief maintains it. Cancer cells fool immune cells into accepting the illusion until it’s too late. But we still have time, borrowed time thanks to Super Immune Cell Trump.
That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
“Everything is upside down. Malignant globalist forces have infiltrated the organs of power and the big lie rules.”
That’s about the size of it. The Left has control of Society’s Megaphones the news media and entertainment media and they create a false reality in which they want all the rest of us to live.
No thanks. I prefer reality to delusion.
If you want to find racism and segregated neighborhoods, the best place to look is in the North.
Ignoring your own problems by attacking others is one the oldest traditions of the left.
Did the interwebs eat my post? I hate that. And I dispise elitist snobs looking down their noses at us po trash down heah in the deep souph.
Megan doesn’t get it – there IS NO “climate crisis.”
Michael
That was my question as well.
??? crazy with ideology and invented terms.
“Mega Mayhem” Bergman gives the impression of being a very frustrated person, like so many alarmists, who see their green utopia recede over the horizon. But fear not! Soon, from that same horizon, a saviour will emerge, when Greta sets forth from Plymoth.
Wouldn’t quantum physics speculation allow for parallel worlds? Mis Bergman is clearly living in one. Fiction writer…Bennington College Nuf said
/signed/ a Southerner living in the world we call ‘real’
Liberalism is a cult. They’re tolerant of everyone who agrees with them, and hate everyone else.
Because they are right. They are on the right side of history, and therefore anyone who disagrees with them is evil.
Fortunately, the Internet has let all the sane people see this, as it allows liberals to post their hatred to the world without censorship.
To the left tolerance means that black liberals cannot be questioned and black conservatives are traitors to their race.
It has always amused me to watch white liberals go around telling blacks and other minorities what they are supposed to believe and think.
Welcome to our world. Florida family since it was the original wild west.
I submit arrogant intellectuals are some of the most bigoted people I know.
She saw more of the South writing for her column than in 30 years living there? What did she do for thirty years? Walk about with a paper bag over her head perhaps?
I am only astonished that utter claptrap like this gets published even in the Grauniad.
I think she should apologise to the people of the South for as bigoted and prejudiced a piece of self-serving drivel as one could wish not to see. Iāve never been to the South of the USA but I simply donāt believe her monotyping of the people there.
Thank you for your eloquent and spot on assessment of this “journalist”. I have lived in the South Carolina for over 50 years. The vast majority of Southerners are gracious and considerate of others, even those we disagree with. We can be willfull and strongly independent at times, but are always willing to lend an ear or helping hand. But always remember what South Carolinian Christopher Gadsen said in 1778…”Don’t Tread on Me”
Similarly I have never been to East Anglia, but got close once, probably as close as she got to the situation she wrote about. I have lived (in 5 states) and traveled in the area of concern from Virginia to Texas since the 1950s. It is true that there has not been much discussion about climate change, hurricanes a lot. The south she wrongly concluded about has changed a lot, hurricanes not much, human adaptation to them a little better, but still a problem. Just went by a newly opened rebuilt motel on the water, floor level a little over a meter above sea level. No storm surge there from Harvey, but wind damage, other storms have flooded the area. She might do a piece on that sort of āunchangedā human behavior in North Carolina, it would be very useful.
From her column—- āSocial and environmental racism, income inequality and poverty are as present as they have ever been, and are only weaponized by climate change, as I reported from Virginia and Natchez, Mississippi.ā https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/07/climate-change-us-south-what-i-learned-writing-about-for-a-year
But then there is always dark chocolate.
https://www.healio.com/family-medicine/nutrition-and-fitness/news/online/%7Bbe1d2457-ae6f-41a1-9d8d-c5636a7a0016%7D/eating-dark-chocolate-may-reduce-depression-risk
“What did she do for thirty years? Walk about with a paper bag over her head perhaps?”
I wish Naomi Oreskes would but no, not this one:
Either way, I think this makes me a misogynistic environmental racist. Where can I collect my prize?
When somebody thinks so many regular people are crazy, the most logical reason is because the person evaluating is crazy.
Megan Mayhew Bergman did not get the memo. The race card has been totally played out.
Then people like her set up the “White Supremacist” card to keep the theme going, but that wore out quickly. “White Supremacist” really blew up when they used it on Candace Owens and Dr. Ben Carson.
Bad Move.
Now she tries the old grievance multiplier of “Intersectionality”, so we get absurdities like:
“Social and environmental racism”
“income inequality and poverty”
Of course, all of them are:
“weaponized by climate change”
Good Grief
The people and dawgs of the South are used to extreme weather:
“the culture of climate change denial below the Mason-Dixon Line”
Does the write know where the Mason-Dixon Line actually is ?
(Divides Pennsylvania from Delaware and Maryland)
Sitting just 100 or so miles South of the Line is the biggest aggregation of Climate Wachos East of the Mississippi.
Blistering temperatures?
Southeast US summers are less blistering now than they were 100 years ago…
David,
You obviously have included far too much data into your charts. It is deceptive to produce a chart that indicates virtually no warming since 1900. You need to append your 1900 – 1975 dataset and splice on low resolution proxy data from worm entrails found in sediment cores of dry lakebeds in Death Valley. Surely this would tease out the hidden signal and show the true horror of Human induced Global Climate Catastrophe.
/sarc
What is it with climate skeptics and this galling fascination with facts?
I spent my first 32 years living in the Midwest and the last 16 in the SE. Given my experiences here, I feel confident saying “a southern man don’t need her around anyhow”. š
If anything, it is cooler in the part of the South of the USA where I am now, than it was when my grandparents were born. 100F days are rare (had one yesterday for the first time in years). I am a born and raised Southerner and military brat, so I have lived in and visited other parts of the world. (NB, the Mason Dixon line separates the North (Pennsylvania) from the South (Maryland and Delaware). During the unpleasantness 150+ years ago, these were on the border. I understand they don’t want to acknowledge their Southern heritage.)
The modern Democrat party was born in the Old South, that is, Virginia; where John C. Calhoun and some Breckinridges got the “bright” idea of a natural aristocracy (where have we heard that one, before? š ). The Democrat party in the USA has been the Party of Slavery, Dispossession, Theft and Death for nigh on 200 years. They haven’t changed a bit. Ol’ Jim wasn’t just a Southern thing (heard that from grandma many times, for she went North to work for a time). Jim was more formal here, yes; just like slavery beforehand. [As Ronald Reagan said, “It isn’t so much that my ‘liberal’ friends are ignorant; it is that so much they do ‘know’ isn’t so”, and that’s still true of them.
Environmental racism..I love it.
Seems that our progressive comrades did not take the Emperors New Clothes as a cautionary tale of Gullibility,vanity and false virtue.
The ramblings of this astonishingly self centred clown serve to remind me of two things.
1)The naked emperors are ugly.
2) A country and western ditty titled “I don’t look good naked anymore.
Of course she,the writer,might be right purely by accident.
The Song “Oh Susanna” indeed mocks the weather challenged and I believe it was written in the “Deep South”
The Grauniad is hanging on by its fingernails, its so desperate that its even willingly become a sort of Goebbelesque conduit for what HMG used to call ‘Public Information’ It’d not be too hard to think that if it carried articles that ran counter to the perceptions of its dwindling band of paying readers, its demise would be declared suicide.
Whilst it would be entertaining to imagine that the Guardian has the sort of influence once enjoyed by the likes of Pravda, or even Der Sturmer, the reality is that its a failing organ that will no doubt share the fate of the Morning Star and Daily Herald. š
Ah yes, the great self-declared, enlightened few who come out to the “sticks” to help us “backwoods” hillbillies see the error of our ways. LOL!! In most liberal university settings, I’ve observed that education and common sense are inversely proportional.
Obviously the emotive journalists from the ever virtue signaling tax dodging periodical (see https://order-order.com/2012/11/26/the-guardians-offshore-secrets-guardian-media-group-still-operates-caymans-company/ ), never read any historical data about how hot it got in the 1930s, or how so many families were displaced (real climate/weather refugees) during those times. Here’s a tip Megan Mayhew Bergman, read John Steinbeck’s ‘Grapes of Wrath’ and consider how those families survived the environmental and financial hard times of the 1930s.
Or read a more involved scientific analysis at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/social-science-history/article/migration-in-the-1930s-beyond-the-dust-bowl/ADC2D805788D4544098483858496AFAE
“Hereās a tip Megan Mayhew Bergman, read John Steinbeckās āGrapes of Wrathā and consider how those families survived the environmental and financial hard times of the 1930s.”
Or she could go get herself a copy of all the weather headlines during the 1930’s. If she did she would see that tens of thousands of people were dying from extreme weather events during the 1930’s, all over the world.
Did tens of thousands of people die from extreme weather events over the last decade all over the world? No, the comparison of the numbers isn’t even close. The 1930’s were the most extreme decade of the 20th and 21st centuries by far.
I used to have a list of some weather headlines from the 1930’s. I’ll look around and see if I can find it.
The thing I took away from The Grapes of Wrath is that not one of the Joads ever did do a lick of work in that novel.
Did I miss it somewhere?
One must laugh at her faux moral outrage that it is hot in the South in the summer, due to all the racism and ignorance and climate change….etc. We need more writers like this to alienate leftists to win them over to our side as new skeptics.
Let us not forget these are people who get deeply angry if anyone suggests that “all lives matter”, if anyone says there are two genders, if anyone opines that it is a bad idea to let men decide one fine day to call themselves a woman and then compete against woman athletes, or if anyone points out that a baby is a human being before it is born.
IOW…these are not exactly rational people.
However, if we keep pointing out the hypocrisy and lack of rational thinking on the part of leftists, I think more and more people in the middle…the ones who decide the elections…may decide that voting for such people may not be such a great idea.
What the hell is environmental racism?
That is not even a thing…just some made up word package.
When the left wants to prevent conversation on something, they apply one or another appellations to the subject or to anyone who might disagree, and the word “racist” is hands down their favorite.
Like all of their epithets, the definition is as malleable as circumstances require.
Christianity? Not a race. Hate on Christians all you want.
Islam? Clearly a race. Even mentioning the religion or bringing up the subject can and often will get you branded, so watch it buddy!
Canada? Not a race. Say what you like about Canadians.
Mexico? Clearly a race. Suggesting we ought to enforce a border with that country is clearly as racist as a person can get…as of the day Donald Trump announced for President that is.
It means anything and everything.
And is not used in contexts where the usage is completely obscure, such as the term “environmental racism”.
As such, the word is now so overused as to be meaningless.
To me the word means one thing: A racist is a person that views the entire world through the lens of the color of a person’s skin.
Sorry, a typo that obscures what I was saying:
“And is NOW used in contexts…”
is what I meant to type.
Environmental racism is the belief that either poor people or factories need to move to wealthy neighborhoods.
The Guardian records todayās level of CO2 on the weather page and says 350ppm is the āsafe levelā. Bless them for that.
They heard it from Bill McKibben, who also thought that 400ppm was what caused hurricane Sandy. He even commented on here about it. I asked him if he knew about the Beer-Lambert Law but he passed on that one.
She hates her parents. She wouldn’t be the first one. But it doesn’t make her bilge true or correct.
The author of this article talks lovingly and eloquently of wild horses, alligators and panthers, but hatefully craps all over people that disagree with her ā standard fare with the inhabitants of the virtue signaling progressive privilege community.
I believe we are just witnessing normal human behavior in a maladaptive but recurrent pattern. We as a species tend to think primarily through emotions and rapid reactions as that is what nature required for us to survive up until the advent of organized society and modern technology. It is frustrating, infuriating, wasteful and in many cases harmful to the welfare of people and the environment but it is what people do. If this is to be corrected to a more appropriate base of critical thinking and careful reasoned decision-making then many aspects of society must address the needed changes, not the least of which are our education systems and our media.
Those who would call me a āclimate denierā would, having read the paragraph above, been certain that I was talking about the irrational behavior of people like me who deny that the world is facing cataclysmic climate Armageddon due to the burning of fossil fuels, or that this is somehow directly linked to all the other perceived evils of modern society: capitalism, racism, slavery, income inequality, homelessness, and a vague grab-bag of malign social defects called social justice issues. If I were to ask the simplest questions as to the basis of their beliefs such as:
What objective evidence is there for adverse trends in current climate?
What evidence (other than mythical climate models) directly proves this is due to CO2 emissions?
How have you excluded all the other significant influences on climate as causation given rapid
and substantial climate changes in the pre-industrial age?
I would be just yelled at an called a āclimate denierā at higher volume. If I asked about evidence that rising energy use, rising temperatures, greening of the biosphere and rising human population and well-being are all correlated better than CO2 and temperature the words wouldnāt even register because the ābelieversā are not thinking in a rational way but simply believing like a herd, a cult, or a religious club. This is what people do. It is why reasoned discussions, presentation of evidence, critical appraisal and rebuttal of evidence that doesnāt meet the standards of good science are pointless efforts.
It is why a deluded journalist can travel the American South seeing only what they expect to see, interpreting every significant weather event as a sign of the end of times, and every poor outcome in society as a direct result of the election of a Republican President who doesnāt pass the idiotic test of the Hollywood good-guy super hero with nice hair and a beguiling smile. Never mind any positive trends in the economy and employment, never mind improving economic conditions for long-disadvantage minorities, never mind that every other president and congress before for decades, Democratic or Republican, has raised the same alarm about uncontrolled borders and asked for similar remedies to those pursued by the current incumbent.
Some of us are spending our time having a scientific debate about the objective evidence of what drives climate, and making what must be considered very speculative guesses about what the future will bring, while others are simply standing on the corner selling their religion and their belief in the end of times. It appears the latter group are winning the majority of adherents because what they do is second nature to humans, while rational thinking is a very difficult and exhausting exercise.
Off-topic, although perhaps not by much – Michael Moore gets half-way there:
https://apnews.com/933b49681b0d47d3a005d356f35251ab
He’s going to be in for another shock when he researches climate sensitivity.
Guess where the domestic net migration is going. Which states are gaining, losing, and stagnant?
Using highly technical deep-grammar analysis (/Sarcasm) I spotted what could be the underlying issue for this reporter’s perspective:
“…My travel reinforced what I already knew…”
A true believer already knows the answer.
You can therefore stop reading anything else they have to say, it’s all just opinion ignoring facts.
Another journalist with obviously no background in science, and who is never bothered to actually look at the data. Funniest line though was the very last sentence.
“We need your support to keep delivering quality journalism, to maintain our openness and to protect our precious independence. Every reader contribution, big or small, is so valuable”
I think I’ve sodden my armor from laughter!
The Guardian is a climate denier by claiming that current temps and hurricanes have anything to do with global warming. I is simply massive ignorance to claim hurricanes (or floods or droughts) have anything to do with global warming.
Liberalism is all about white people. To a Liberal they are the good white guys fighting the evils of capitalism, colonialism and imperialism. The reason people do not get their world view is obviously right wing media, big business, the Koch brothers, Murdoch or us right wingers are to too stupid to understand the science, economics.
Green Profits conflate logical domains. Liberalism is divergent. Progressivism is monotonic [unqualified] change. Conservativism smooths perturbations. Principles matter.
Environmental racism. Could she be any more ridiculous?
I realize that accusations of RACIST!!! constitute a leftist rebuttal of any conservative comment in lieu of rational debate (because they have no truth or facts on their side) but surely they can see that there are limits.
Yeah, no I guess not.
Yup! My first question is WHAT THE HE!! is environmental racism ?
Never send your children to an Ivy League School .
Well, on a second reading I see she got one thing right:
“…and are only weaponized by climate change.”
That is exactly what the warmistas, which include her, have done.
They have weaponized the issue of climate, and use as “evidence” to themselves only, things that have always been present, events that have always occurred, and always will.
Separately, I want to know which states and cities that are not in the Southern US have reduced income inequality and/or poverty?
She has actually stated that seeing these things in the South is evidence that it is a world apart from her world.
(Poverty of course is a relative thing, but clearly there are rich and poor people. Everywhere.)
Besides for her totally ignorance and confirmation bias, it takes a lot of work to ignore or forget what it is that has lifted the entire world out of poverty, and that it is the exact thing which she and her ilk blame their imaginary climate crisis on: Cheap and plentiful energy.
I remember visiting people in LA before the LA riots. My impression from talking to people then was that they viewed the “deep south” as some kind of contained, regional place where racism resided apart from other regions. That was until they were rudely and violently awaken from their armchair philosophizing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots
https://www.britannica.com/event/Los-Angeles-Riots-of-1992
One of the second most insulated think places I was aware of on this topic was Missouri. They too got awakened.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_St._Louis_protests
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/09/us/university-of-missouri-enrollment-protests-fallout.html
Does this dimwit think there were no cat 4 hurricanes before she was born (or before Ford popularized the ICE)?
She must be super sensitive (like Greta) if she can feel the temperature increase that has occurred during her lifetime.
She must also be so blinded by the love of her adopted North East that she does not see the continued waterfront development of the Atlantic coast from Delaware to Maine. (To say nothing of “enlightened” California on the Pacific.))
TRANSLATION: These folks don’t agree with me so they are obviously ignorant hicks, 200 years behind the times. How does nonsense like this get published?
Take a look at other stuff she has written.
She is convinced things that are not real.
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/megan-mayhew-bergman
The over arching sense of superiority always get me. This is a great illustration. The lack of self awareness in regard to the lens they see everything through is a hallmark of the alarmists. The other side is wrong, the other side is mired in a culture of their definition. So even when every prediction they make fails and their whole story is falling apart , its the other side that needs radical attention to help them “understand”
Sorry I dont want to be in your cult.
Itās one thing for the Guardian to appoint themselves members of the UKās unelected left wing aristocracy. But when they try to do the same thing in the USA, itās high time someone gave them the thoroughly good kicking that they deserve. (Metaphorically speaking of course.) They need to be taught to mind their own business.
Another creepy headline. https://newrepublic.com/article/154649/reformed-climate-deniers-dont-deserve-redemption
Trump is preparing an EO on Social Media:
https://ussanews.com/News1/2019/08/07/president-trump-is-preparing-an-executive-order-that-will-crack-down-hard-on-social-media-censorship-of-conservatives/
It’s official.
Playing “The Race Card” is so passe. It has now been replaced by “The Race Deck”.
Leftists are intolerant. Doesn’t matter what the subject, if you disagree with them you instantly are labeled evil and someone who has to be destroyed. Doesn’t matter what the subject matter is.
‘I thought that Hurricane Florence might serve as a turning point in the conversation about the realities of climate change in a region still mired in a culture of denial and delay.’
I was hit by Florence, though a tropical storm by the time it got here. I’ve seen a number of hurricanes in my lifetime here in the southeastern U.S.
Florence was just a hurricane. Just like a dozen others before it. Only the ignorant could see it as a ‘turning point in the conversation.’ Things like hurricanes happen every few years. Have been all of my 70 years.
‘region still mired’
Ignorant fool commenting on my region. What a maroon.
I found this chart with the annual number of hurricanes in the north Atlantic every year since 1851.
http://stormfax.com/huryear.htm
Avg is about six a year. About ONE THOUSAND HURRICANES SINCE 1851*. But somehow Hurricane Florence was different, and should have changed people’s outlook. I reckon if southerners were as dim as Guardian writers, it could work.
*Probably substantially more, but Man didn’t effectively monitor the north Atlantic very well until well into the 20th century.
I live in the South and grew up in the South. It is always hot in the summer and sometimes it is hot in the winter, too. Like shorts at Christmas hot. I live closer to the Gulf Coast than many and I’ve seen tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes of varying size and intensity. The first I remember was Carla and the last one was Harvey.
I am a true skeptic about many things, especially if Chicken Little is doing the announcements of gloom and doom. I became convinced there is nothing more unintelligent (& credulous) than a college student convinced the Earth is warming and it is our fault. It made this skeptic look into it. I found out the oceans and the sun drive the climate of our planet, just as the moon drives the tides.
“…Social and environmental racism, income inequality and poverty are as present as they have ever been, and are only weaponized by climate change…”
I would love to hear some examples of this tripe.
I will be happy to examine my approach to climate data and models. In return I would ask the Guardian to just answer a simple question: at the present rate of change, about what year will the climate finally reach the optimum for the biosphere?
I have lived in the US southeast for a long time. Within that time, Jim Crow, made possible and extended for nearly a century by a North-South Democrat compromise, was largely broken by the shaming tactic of painting all of the inhabitants of a region as either racists or victims of racism. A noble goal reached through a vile tactic which was effective when the south was some distant and isolated place to 75% of the US population.
Fast forward to today and the same tactic, “everyone who disagrees with me is a racist”, is once again in favor for activists. Lets see how it plays out when the “racists” are not some strange terrible people we will likely never meet and living in a different region, but instead our own family members and neighbors.
RULE 5: āRidicule is manās most potent weapon.ā — Saul Alinsky
I can’t imagine why a region which has high rates of white poverty would laugh off a self-important rich white liberal who comes along to inform all the Walmart workers of how privileged they are.
The take away from this latest Guardian article is, don’t read the Guardian.
Most people don’t. From this kind of narrow minded piece which is so typical of Guardian output, it is easy to understand why the Guardian is in financial trouble.
Just ignore them.
Until they open up and allow those, whose views are different from their own column space to contribute, don’t support them in any way whatsoever.
If they do not open up debate they will continue to decline, just like their broadcasting partner the BBC will continue to decline.
If they imagine, people like Monbiot and his ilk, will save them from ignominious insignificance, they are sadly deluded.
There are endless alternative sources of stories and factual reports available today on line, use them, and let the Guardian know you have stopped clicking on or taking the hard copy option.
Sure there is a crisis, a climate SCIENCE crisis.
There seems to be this common trait amongst these activists. They are all about having a conversation, a dialogue, but when it strays from repetition of scripture then they need to investigate the strange phenomenon.
Am i the only one who read her article and didn’t see anything in it that was climete related except for several bland unsupported assertions that whatever environmental ill she was discussing would only be made worse by climate change? Not even “has been made worse by climate change”.
Here in rural Eastern Virginia we are unbelievers; we have online access to the State of Virginia temperature records which have not been normalized by the fictioneers at NOAA. Hence we see that it is no warmer now than it was thirty years ago or sixty years ago and that it was yet warmer in the 1930s. But that’s factual information and doesn’t count. Who was it said “don’t confuse me with facts, my mind’s made up”?
I saw she dragged out the old nonsense about Norfolk (about sixty miles away so how could us rubes know anything about it) being one of the most flood prone areas due to climate change which hasn’t actually happened. A journalist interested in facts could have dug out information viz:
Much of Norfolk was built on filled swamp which has been compacting for centuries. Also groundwater depletion has been so severe that earth has subsided and there is saltwater intrusion as far as Sandston VA. Norfolk is on the edge of a huge asteroid crater which is still slowly filling in – down hill wasting occurs under water too. She might also have learned that the whole area is subject to sinking as a result of isostatic rebound. more pesky facts!
I guess I’ll have to be sent to a re-education camp to unlearn everything I learned at university about Math, Physics, Earth Sciences (physical Geography, Climatology & Geology etc) and learn to believe neofascist propaganda instead.
Maybe she should have ‘criss-crossed’ the region in April & May this year-when it was still cold or atleast not hot, in most of the USA including the south.. that might make the ‘denialism’ more understandable then visiting in August when it’s ‘blistering’. and ofcource she thisks ‘blistering’ temps in the deep south in the middle of summer indicated ‘climate change’.
Funny how it’s never those pesky Chinese or Indians or Africans. They are the ones wanting build coal power plants.