Commemorating Thirty Years of Indifference, Neglect and Outright Mendacity

In today's New York Times, environmental activist and lecturer, Paul Bledsoe, offers up a year-by-year record of three decades of American indifference, neglect and blatant dishonesty on climate change.

It all began when a relatively unknown NASA scientist testified before Congress.

Thirty years ago, a NASA scientist, James Hansen, told lawmakers at a Senate hearing that “global warming is now large enough that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause-and-effect relationship with the greenhouse effect.” He added that there “is only 1 percent chance of accidental warming of this magnitude.” 

By that, he meant that humans were responsible. 

His testimony made headlines around the United States and the world. But in the time since, greenhouse gas emissions, the global temperature average and cost of climate-related heat, wildfires, droughts, flooding and hurricanes have continued to rise.

You can read Bledsoe's year-by-year summary at the link above. It provides a sobering look at the nation that has played such a prominent role in fashioning the existential threat that now hovers over mankind and most other life on Earth.