Withholding information about climate change is immoral

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Posted on May 31, 2008
Filed Under Justice, Global warming/Climate change, Greenhouse gas emissions, Ecological hope, Earth spirituality

Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:

Just think what it would mean if crucial information about dangers to our lives and well-being were kept from us.

Of course, this is done all the time — things like environmental pollution, food contamination, etc. — we deal with realities like this all the time.

We know it is immoral. Like tobacco — for decades cigarette manufacturers knew that smoking caused lung cancer and other horrible diseases. But they kept the info from the public, played hardball with whistleblowers, and doctored cigarettes to make them even more efficient drug delivery systems.

Right now, China is madly trying to release water from a lake created by the earthquake that is about to burst a dam threatening the homes of more than a million people. What if instead of evacuating folks and getting the engineers working overtime on this, they decided not to tell anybody — until the dam gave way?

What if the road was headed straight for a cliff with no signs or barriers to warn you? What if you came to a busy intersection with no lights or traffic signs and the speed limit was 60 mph? What if the next flu epidemic was in store but this time folks decided not to create a vaccine?

How about climate change?

As we noted the other day, the Bush administration was finally forced to comply with the law by releasing a study — three years late — about the impacts of global warming and the resulting climate changes on the U.S. It is bad news for the country. It is especially bad news for the most vulnerable among us, the poor, elderly, babies and children, as the linked article from Andrew Revkin at the NY Times makes note.

How do we measure in moral terms the weight of responsibility of a government that first resisted providing this information, then, having it, tried to keep it from becoming public, that is, available to us, we who paid for the study and whose lives will be impacted drastically by its findings, we who in a democracy think we have some say in how our government serves us?

How do we measure the weight of responsibility of a government that knows these tremendously difficult, even destructive, times are coming, and does nothing meaningful to address the crisis — for what will end up being 8 years?

I put the link in the May 28 post, but here it is again, the link to the new study from the U.S. Climate Science Program describing some of the impacts of climate change on our country. Now, if we can expect radical shifts in the weather — more drought, unpredictable rainfall, diminishing snowpacks and aquifers, drastic shifts in agricultural patterns, more violent storms — don’t you think we need this information so that we can begin to make informed decisions about what to do?

To quickly, quickly, quickly reduce carbon dioxide emissions…

To strengthen disaster relief capacity…

To stop development in areas especially prone to the negative impacts of drought and floods…

To begin withdrawing from coastal areas…

You know, a long list of things, and we have barely begun to have the conversation.

Just to get dramatic about it. This potentially record year for tornadoes is one of the signs of a changing climate. This MSNBC article, U.S. could see record twisters this season, describes well what is going on. Tornadoes are getting more numerous and they are getting bigger. And the U.S. is uniquely suited for the weather that creates tornadoes.

We have posted on this before. We have a lot of extreme weather to look forward to, which means we have a lot of destruction to look forward to, which means we need the information to help us begin to prepare — a whole lot better than we are now prepared.

Today the NY Times included an Op-Ed by Charles M. Blow, Farewell, Fair Weather, just so you know I am far from the only one pondering these things. Blow writes:

We are now firmly ensconced in the Age of Extreme Weather.

And he is telling us that the destruction could soon become “economically unbearable.”

So, how do we want to prepare for this? What values emerge from this? What do our faith tradtions have to offer us that can help us address this reality forthrightly, with a willingness for profound change, even conversion, and with a sense of justice and boundless compassion?

What do you think?


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