environment: assholes denialism East Coast idiots Storms
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The Toronto Globe and Mail has an article on the escalation of storms on the East Coast, noting that a coastal weather expert believes that Climate Change might have something to do with it. The comments section is stupid beyond belief.
The increased frequency and severity of storms and unusual weather events is exactly what climatologists have been predicting for years as a long-term consequence of the greenhouse effect. Now that their forecasts are coming true, something quite remarkable is happening. Rather than receiving long-overdue and well-deserved recognition, these researchers are mocked, derided, threatened with de-funding, and stigmatized as threats to society. Why? Because they were right? The denialist conspiracy theory that an international cabal of scientists is plotting to achieve world dominance is far less likely than the alternative theory: that a group of petroleum billionaires and the multinational corporations they run are spending huge quantities of money to delay the day when their product is recognized as being profoundly toxic to the long-term health of both our planet and our civilization. The fossil fuel industry is a global version of Big Tobacco. Smoke and lies, smoke and lies.