Conservatives Trying to Find Footing on Climate Change
September 15, 2021
Revealing clip above has equal shares of frustration and satisfaction for climate realists.
On the plus side, uber conservative Bill O’Reilly (now humbled on a much smaller platform, but I’ll use him as an example) now gets that climate change is happening, and humans are responsible. He’s still clinging to the “..But China” rationalizations, and beating up on the “left wing loons” (who, it turns out, have been right all along, but never mind..) He gives a shout-out to the “wind turbines failed in Texas” canard.
The young lady he’s interviewing, while among the new generation of conservatives talking about climate, also seems stuck on the “nuclear and carbon capture” track, although hard to tell if she’s just trying to placate O’Reilly or she really believes it. No mention of solar, wind, batteries. (although Tesla comes up)
You should know that in fact there are conservatives who are working hard in America’s reddest areas to help roll out solar and wind development, and they are having great success. I’ve been doing a lot of work cooperatively with these folks, and these are some of the most productive left-right conversations currently happening in the country.
FWIW, posting for the umpteenth time my video on the Texas Blackouts of last winter. Bookmark for Thanksgiving discussions with Uncle Dittohead and Aunt Teabag.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
September 15, 2021 at 11:47 am
Everybody wants to battle climate change. Thank you 🌍
September 16, 2021 at 9:00 am
No, everybody doesn’t.
Climate catastrophe suits the purposes of some. It fulfills their dreams.
September 16, 2021 at 2:25 pm
September 15, 2021 at 12:31 pm
‘Can’t regulate’ BS answered here:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/09/climate-majority-of-fossil-fuels-need-to-stay-underground-study-says.html
September 15, 2021 at 5:17 pm
baby steps
September 15, 2021 at 8:51 pm
Except we’re baby steppin’ our way to a 2 or 3 degree C warmer world, and dillweeds like O’Reilly and the free market ideologues are leading the way. What’s more important: decreasing the future global temperature for all our descendants with its subsequent environmental effects like wildfires, crop failures, coastal flooding, horrific storms, and on and on – or having regulations like a carbon tax and no-drill zones in places like the Arctic for the next 50 years?
Meanwhile, exactly who are the people fighting to keep fossil fuel subsidies? They’re not even ideologically consistent.
It boils down to this with the no regulation horse sheet: we refuse to sacrifice anything, not even the barest crumb, for others. We want it all for ourselves. It’s disgusting in every way.
Here’s what the free market has given us:
https://www.iea.org/news/global-carbon-dioxide-emissions-are-set-for-their-second-biggest-increase-in-history
It’s NOT ENOUGH. Maybe they’ll realize their mistake at some point, but what are the chances it will be way too late by then?
September 15, 2021 at 8:55 pm
Well said!—-I agree with every word.
September 17, 2021 at 3:40 pm
There’s always been a difference between people’s stated beliefs and their inner motivation. The best I’ve come to hope for is a few moments of confusion from them when you confront them with their own contradictions.
Notice how politicians who have long supported “free markets” and reduced regulation (guaranteeing big donations) pivoted to forbidding private companies from establishing their own pandemic policies without batting an eyelash.
It’s perverse that I am now counting on multinationals’ self-interest (pandemic and climate change) to push back against conservatives’ and libertarians’ talking points.
September 17, 2021 at 4:04 pm
Of course. The market religion is not about freedom or efficiency or anything else they say it’s about; it’s about domination. It’s about providing an excuse for the license for rich white “christian” males to do whatever they want while restricting others’ freedoms and ability to resist. Now that includes destroying science and truth, making everyone question reality so the RWCMs can make it whatever they want it to be. Just more domination. Burning things for energy in centralized power structures, controlling reality, and atoms… even minds and bodies through the pollution emitted by industrial society. It’s all the same. Add today’s nihilism and climate genocide, and you get a much better picture of what’s going on.
September 15, 2021 at 9:15 pm
“We can’t regulate our way out of climate change, we can only innovate our way out.” Some peppy sloganeering ya got there. Create a regulatory environment where innovational risk becomes tolerable, or people are going to take their ‘gray matter’ elsewhere. Like the U.S. has ‘only’ been doing for the last two centuries or so.
September 16, 2021 at 11:26 am
Another example of how the free market handles climate change:
CNBC: Chevron CEO explains why the oil giant’s lower-carbon investments look past wind and solar energy.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/15/chevron-ceo-mike-wirth-on-the-oil-giants-lower-carbon-investments.html
September 17, 2021 at 11:35 am
Current pledges equals 2.7 degrees C warming by 2100:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/09/17/un-climate-2030-biden/
September 17, 2021 at 3:44 pm
I don’t get what these “commitments” are: Are they contractual obligations? If so, what entity enforces them?