There was a crooked house…
Taken the other day in Lavenham, an exquisite old town in Suffolk.
Quote of the Day
”We cannot live without fossil fuels or chemicals, period, end of story.”
- Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who (according to the New York Times) wants to expand exports of liquefied natural gas, which is produced in Louisiana and emits half the carbon dioxide of coal but is a source of methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas.
Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news
Christine McVie | Fleetwood Mac | Songbird
This was one of the favourite songs of my beloved Sue, who died nineteen years ago this month. I never hear it without thinking of her.
Long Read of the Day
Playing Nice With the Fossil Fuel Industry Is Climate Denial
By Kate Aronoff, writing in The New Republic on the way the American political system is unable to deal with the challenge (as expressed above in Quote of the Day).
This is climate denial. These politicians don’t dispute that the climate is changing, but they are absolutely in denial about what curbing it would entail. The report has made clear that the climate in which this country became a superpower no longer exists. So why are politicians stuck on twentieth-century answers to the twenty-first century’s problems?
Going from climate-denial to climate-delay
The latest IPCC report should make climate-denial the last refugee of nutters and conspiracy theorists (though, God knows, there are still plenty of those around), so reactionary activism is shifting its grounds — from denial to delay and new kinds of discourses which accept the existence of climate change, but justify inaction or inadequate efforts. These discourses focus on what actions should be taken, by whom and how fast. Advocates of climate delay are now arguing for minimal action or for action to be taken by others. (China, in particular.) They highlight the negative social effects of climate policies and — most importantly — raise doubt that mitigation is possible. This remarkable paper outlines the common features of these ‘climate delay’ discourses and provide a guide to identifying them, organised around this brilliant diagram.
Many thanks to Richard Sambrook and Andrew Curry for alerting me to it.
This blog is also available as a daily newsletter. If you think this might suit you better why not sign up? One email a day, Monday through Friday, delivered to your inbox at 7am UK time. It’s free, and there’s a one-button unsubscribe if you conclude that your inbox is full enough already!