Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Aussie press demonizing Senator Joe Manchin, the lone Democrat who opposed President Biden’s Green New Deal Build Back Better.
The coal man with the fate of the world in his hands
By Nick O’Malley
January 23, 2022 — 9.00amThis month around the world those most engaged in the desperate fight to cut fossil fuel emissions in time to prevent the very worst impacts of global warming are watching one man: Joe Manchin, a Democratic senator for West Virginia. A coal man.
“What would you tell Manchin if you were sitting down with him today?” I asked the Australian climate scientist and physicist Bill Hare, a man who knows about as much as anyone about global climate politics
“I’d tell him he has history in his hands,” says Hare.
The American political veteran John Podesta, a key counsellor over the years to Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and now Joe Biden and his climate envoy John Kerry, was more blunt in a recent Rolling Stone article.
If Joe Manchin does not cease his opposition to crucial climate policy now being championed by Biden, “we are all f—ed”.
Podesta was not talking about the Democratic Party, nor even the United States, but the world.
On Thursday, the leading climate scientist and advocate Michael Mann said he shared the view, telling the Herald and The Age the need to rapidly decarbonise was now so acute that the decisions made by individuals in power at present, and by Manchin specifically, could have profound implications on all of us.
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Today even the coal unions which once backed Manchin’s dedicated support of their industry have lost faith.
“We urge Senator Manchin to revisit his opposition to this legislation and work with his colleagues to pass something that will help keep coal miners working, and have a meaningful impact on our members, their families and their communities,” said United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil Roberts, a long-time ally of Manchin’s, in a statement four days before Christmas.
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Many, including those quoted in the excoriating Rolling Stone profile, have noted that Manchin’s vast family fortune comes not from toiling in mines but from trading in energy produced by burning the dirtiest form of fuel used in the region, a coal waste product known as “gob”.
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Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/the-coal-man-with-the-fate-of-the-world-in-his-hands-20220121-p59q20.html
So long as China and India continue to expand fossil fuel capacity at breakneck speed, so long as Africa and other poor nations are leaping onto the coal bandwagon to finally break free from centuries of poverty, nothing President Biden or Joe Manchin does will make any lasting difference to global CO2 emissions.
So why demonize Senator Manchin?
Demonizing Senator Manchin is irrational, but I believe the most extreme climate activists in their despair have moved well beyond reason.
What I believe we are seeing is the final collapse of the climate movement. The last holdouts in the bunker are screaming impotently at each other and and the world, pointlessly arguing over whose fault it was, as the inevitable day of reckoning approaches.
Senator Joe Manchin is no fool, he gets it. With coal making a huge comeback even in green Europe, and the USA sitting on the largest share of the world’s coal reserves, and West Virginia sitting on a sizeable chunk of those world class US coal reserves, it would be the height of insanity to shut down US coal production just as the party is getting started.
This will be a great year to be a climate skeptic.
Correction (EW): h/t Danny T Davis – West Virginia, not Virginia 🙂
Correction (EW): USA has 22% of the world’s coal reserves, so I corrected “most of the world’s coal reserves” to “largest share”.
“Michael Mann said he shared the view, telling the Herald and The Age the need to rapidly decarbonise was now so acute that the decisions made by individuals in power at present, and by Manchin specifically, could have profound implications on all of us.”
You just have to laugh at how habitualized they are with their propaganda. Even here with the certainty to which they”ve concluded that the future of, not just humanity, but the earth itself is in the balance, they thoughtlessly accede that it’s only a possibility.
“We urge Senator Manchin to revisit his opposition to this legislation and work with his colleagues to pass something that will help keep coal miners working, said United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil Roberts”
WTF???????
partly, as the Rolling Stone article says, “encourage businesses to build manufacturing facilities for miners who have lost their jobs”
oh, just like that- encourage new industries for the miners- and voila, it’ll happen- that’s absurd- it won’t happen- industries are leaving the country- and they’re not going to WV
I can only wonder who paid off the union bosses
Almost every federal building in West Virginia is named after late Senator Robert Byrd or his family. But I suppose there’s room for the “Joe Manchin Technical Institute of Java Programming”.
Is a “climate denialist level 7” kinda like a black belt in climate denial? I like it.
I also like the title. How does one become a level 8 denialist…is there a test I can take?
OK, here’s the test for level 8. If you answer “no” on every question- you get level 8 black belt “denier of the AGW catastrophe”. The belts will be handed out in a ceremony by Anthony Watts.
———————————————-
Here’s the test.
1. was the Earth’s climate ideal 150 years ago? yes ___ no ___
2. is CO2 a pollutant? yes ___ no ___
3. can our civilization thrive without fossil fuels? yes ___ no ___
4. are industrial scale solar and wind installations clean and green? yes ___ no ___
5. is “net zero” possible? yes ___ no ___
6. are tree rings thermometers? yes ___ no ___
7. is there such a thing as “global climate” yes ___ no ___
8. is there a better place on the internet to learn the true complexity of climate science and politics than WUWT? yes ___ no ___
9. is the “skeptical science” web site (https://skepticalscience.com/) skeptical about climate science? yes ___ no ___
10. do 97% of climate scientists agree that there is a climate crisis worthy of drastically changing everything about our civilization while spending hundreds of trillions of dollars to do so? yes ___ no ___
Number 3, replace “thrive” with “survive”.
The requirements to advance from Climate Denialist Level 7 to Level 8 are quite difficult, which is why I have been stuck at Level 7 for over 5 years now.
Among other things, you must be publicly denounced by at least 3 different high priests of the Carbon Cult in a single year. The official list of Carbon Cult high priests is a bit fluid year to year, but Michael Mann, Al Gore and David Suzuki are guaranteed to be included. Peter Gleick was on the list for a while but then dropped several years back. I just checked and Griff is not on this year’s list.
It’s not enough to merely eschew the Carbon Cult Revealed Truth, you must do so to a degree they deem to be threatening them. Try as I might, I just have not managed to meet that bar. I thought for a while I could get denounced by asking usual suspects for copies of their data, but the vituperative reactions have been confined to private emails which have not yet been exposed (good idea; but too late).
I am currently searching for a new strategy.
We need to start a SuperPAC for Alan!
Java is about as popular as a fart in an elevator since Oracle bought Sun (and hence control of the Java standard), so having miners learn to code Java seems to fit.
A better title would be “The Joe Manchin Academy for learning to code”
It’s a rare union boss who actually cares about the well being of the members of the union.
So rare that they may in fact by entirely mythical.
In other words such union bosses are unicorns.
The union leaders are firmly in the grasp of the Democratic Party. Like “black leaders” they are more worried about feathering their own nests, then what they can do for their constituents.
““West Virginia politicians can only deny reality for so long,” says Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois, who helped manage the energy transition in coal-heavy regions of southern Illinois.”
So, I wonder how many awesome jobs Casten got for those coal miners in his district. Computer programming? Installing “clean energy”? It might make for another article in Rolling Stone.
If you went into coal mining in the first place, you probably don’t have the inclination or aptitude for programming.
exactly- they might not mind installing “clean” energy but probably won’t get paid nearly as well
Well hey, if programming doesn’t cut it, they can become farmers. After all anyone can be a farmer, according to Michael Bloomberg: “you dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn”. easy-peasy.
Manchin’s poll numbers are increasing in West Virginia, which is extremely proud of him defending the West Virginia economy, and livelihoods of millions of West Virginia workers.
As a side benefit, he is doing far more benefit to the world’s economy, than trust fund, married-into-Heinz-wealth, useless Kerry could ever do.
Kerry was in Australia bemoaning Manchin, who is a true patriot, whereas Kerry is true traitor.
“whereas Kerry is true traitor”
the man who gets $700 haircuts cannot possibly understand the rest of us
There was a time when politics stopped at the border. But that was a time when we were Americans first and Republican/Democrat second.
Can anyone recall a time when Reagan trash talked a Democrat while overseas?
Heck, I can’t really recall a time when Reagan trash talked an opponent. No matter what the Democrats said about him, he remained a gentleman.
“There you go again” along with that head shake was all he needed.
That and “I promise not to take advantage of my opponents youth and inexperience.”
He tended to attack their ideology rather than the individuals personally.
He once said, “The national Democratic leadership is going so far left, they’ve left America.” Sadly, it’s’ not just the leadership anymore, it’s practically the entire party now.
The Democratic party is attempting to enshrine itself into perpetual power and at the same time sealing that power with agendas that are in opposition to the well being of the people. Australia is not an example the US would want to follow in it’s heavy handed dealing with the virus.
“What I believe we are seeing is the final collapse of the climate movement.”
I wish.
What we are seeing is a few people apparently coming to their senses, probably for personal political reasons.
Yeah. We’ve been hearing that sentiment for decades. They’ve gotten stronger, not weaker.
In my view, Podesta is stubbornly clinging on to the Climate Change wagon to hold on the his remaining relevance (A la AlGore.)
“Aussie press demonizing Senator Joe Manchin, the lone Democrat who opposed President Biden’s
Green New DealBuild Back BetterBuild a Bigger Welfare State.“Double fixed!
There is a lot to admire in Joe Manchin’s political stances. He seems grounded on principle and an understanding of his role as representative of his State government in the Federal Congress. Both sides of the aisle could use statesmen like him.
But I can’t rid my mind of the picture of Joe Biden and Joe Manchin riding in a convertible with Sen Byrd, in a parade celebrating the latter.
Podesta was talking about the mid term elections not the world.
Manchin alone has elevated opinions of WV. Thank you Senator for saving the country.
I prefer to think of Manchin (and Sinima) as the last of the old school Democrats in Congress that put country and freedom above MOB rule here in the USA.
“Aussie press demonizing Senator Joe Manchin, the lone Democrat who opposed President Biden’s
Green New DealBuild Back Better.”Only Manchin wasn’t a lone Democrat. Senator Sinema also opposed it.