At some point we're going to have to write off conservatives, Tories and Blue Liberals alike, when it comes to climate change. They're either outright, dyed in the wool, deniers or they're "not just yet" delayers. Unfortunately we're at a critical point where the distinction between them is becoming nebulous.
A report in Vox looks at American conservatives and how, despite all the mounting evidence of the worsening danger of catastrophic climate change, their position is unmovable no matter how dire the evidence or impacts.
Here we have Ford, Pallister, Moe, Kenney and Scheer - a gang of far-right thugs resolved to thwart even the most gestural attempts to thwart climate change. Evidence will not persuade them.
Let's call it what it is. These people will not raise a finger to stop climate cataclysm. They are agents of disaster.
The Liberals say some of the right things, make good-sounding promises, but they're several dollars short and several days late.
Here's the thing about climate change, particularly runaway global warming - there is no prize for "close" not that even the Liberal promises would qualify as close. Our overall emissions have gone up, not down, in the past year and we're still in the top three nations for per capita greenhouse gas emissions. We are not, as some have suggested, a sterling example for the rest of the world.
We have fewer than a dozen years remaining to reduce our carbon emissions by half, fifty per cent. That's a task that can barely be met within that time frame if we really put our collective shoulder into it - and we're not. Our government hasn't even accepted that challenge and it's not going to. We're a petro-state so forget it even if that means future generations will be left to pay dearly for our perfidy.
Those to whom we have entrusted the reins of power have failed us and that's not going to change. When it comes right down to it, most of us would rather look the other way especially if the alternative demands real sacrifice and changes to our high-carbon lifestyle.
Conservatives in both mainstream parties have made their choice and it's a waste of time hoping they'll see the light. That's not going to happen. This October they'll still split something upwards of 70 per cent of the vote and they know it so what incentive do they have to abruptly change? None.
Know this. The next chance we'll get to have our say will be toward the end of 2023. The climate will be a lot worse by then. The next four years are going to see record temperatures. Gonna be hot, hot, hot. If the climate team at the University of Hawaii are right, by 2023 our planet should be slipping into the beginning of "climate departure." By 2023 we'll have barely six years left to meet the 50 by 30 warning and there won't be remotely enough time.
We've got too many conservatives in both parties and they're not going to change, not in time. If you want action on climate change you'll have to look elsewhere. This may be a "self-help" crisis.
