How Many Climate Skeptics Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?

The answer:

First off, the light bulb is not burned out, and even if it was,
it is not MY fault so why should I change it?
Besides, it is far too expensive for me to change a light blub.
Why are light Nazis always trying to get me to change my bulb?
Also, we are not taking into account all of the wonderful benefits of living in the dark!
Oh, and you don’t see the Chinese changing THEIR light bulbs do you? Well do you?

I have come to the conclusion that the majority of our world governments are run by sociopaths, defined by the American Psychiatric Association’s as, “a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others.” At the same time another  segment of our representatives are delusional… meaning “a disorder characterized by the presence of recurrent,  insight to see that anything is wrong with the way they are thinking or functioning.”

What should be considered a global crisis is being viewed as yet another money maker for the oil industry. Recently Green Peace International sent the crew of the Arctic Sunrise ship to draw public attention to the melting of the Arctic ice caps. They were arrested by Russian authorities and are accused of “piracy” against an oil platform.  Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo said in a statement, “The Arctic is melting before our eyes, and these brave activists stand in defiance of those who wish to exploit this unfolding crisis to drill for more oil.” Russia views its huge fossil fuel deposits under the Arctic as vital to its economic future, which is why it takes any threat to their exploitation very seriously”, the BBC’s Daniel Sandford reported from Moscow. The Arctic seems to be the next “gold rush” with Russia being the first to stake their claim in 2001.

Russia is not the only country to blame for the mess we are in. The United States, China, The UK and Europe are all to blame, or at least the sociopath leaders of these countries are the ones who allow the polluters to continue. Scientists have warned of this looming catastrophe for decades and world leaders have turned a blind eye to the problem, however they do seem to listen to the naysayers, whose agenda is to continue using the planet as their own atm machine and toilet. For them its business as usual, whether its drilling for oil, fracking, spewing coal into the atmosphere or nuclear energy. These leaders have no regard for the rights of anyone else except those who send them fat checks during election time. Corporations now have more rights — thanks to Citizens United — than citizens of the world and don’t get me started about what they are doing to the wildlife habitat.

To Hell with all of us, money is the name of the game and the one who ends up with the most at the end …wins! Money is more important than living in a healthy environment. The ones who are destroying our environment portray themselves as good businessmen while the ones with the courage to expose them are treated as criminals. The polluters should be the ones in jail, not the other way around.

It doesn’t matter if the government leader is democratic or communist, both are run by the rich and both have no consideration for anyone but themselves. Both are consumed with the desire for endless money and power. When disaster hits home they wring their hands, while saying they have things under control, when the opposite is really true.

Just look at Fukushima. Their crippled nuclear reactor is still dumping radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean after its meltdown 2 years ago, and are you aware that our oceans will be affected in less than a year? Their environmental disaster could soon become our problem, especially if you eat fish. As of now, there is no solution to stopping the leaking radioactive waste. Isn’t that comforting?

2006 it was BP that made headlines with their Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The spill wasn’t contained for a 100 days and to this day Louisiana has not fully recovered. It could take decades for the deep sea eco system to recover. How many more environmental crisis’s will it take before we stop our behavior?

Our world leaders have no desire to really do anything except occasionally give “lip service” about the problem, then its right back to business as usual. Will they finally stop this madness when its their own homes flooding or their own kids dying from environmental illnesses? They certainly don’t seem to care about the future of our kids.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just released their report and agreed that human activity are the cause for climate change and that even if we stopped releasing carbon emissions into the atmosphere today, we will still feel the effects for a long time to come…meaning continued erratic weather patterns and rising sea levels. Below is a photo of a street in downtown Miami. Its not raining, the streets flood twice a day due to high tides! Can you imagine dealing with that on a daily basis? And the streets will continue to flood as seas continue to rise from the ice caps melting.

The state of Texas has experienced severe drought since 2010. The state also has a high number of fracking sites which are fighting citizens over the precious water rights. It takes a great deal of water to frack and when there is severe drought, who gets the water? You guessed it; big oil and gas.  The corporations get what they want while farms are left bone dry with dead cattle. What happened to our priorities? We can’t eat oil or maybe no one sent Governor Rick Perry that memo. Its not just farms that are suffering, whole towns will be soon be out of water.

Even though there is now scientific evidence that proves climate change there are the naysayers like Rush Limbaugh, who said on his radio show,  “See, in my humble opinion, folks, if you believe in God, then intellectually you cannot believe in manmade global warming … You must be either agnostic or atheistic to believe that man controls something that he can’t create.”

Colorado pastor and radio talk show host Kevin Swanson blamed the floods in Colorado on abortion, the legalization of marijuana, and “decadent homosexual activity, ” not climate change.

But it isn’t just delusional talk show hosts who spew this nonsense, according to an article by “Opposing Views,” many Americans have failed to take action about climate change because they believe that the world will be coming to an end anyway. In their study, titled “End-Times Theology, the Shadow of the Future, and Public Resistance to Addressing Global Climate Change,” David C. Barker of the University of Pittsburgh and David H. Bearce of the University of Colorado argue that citizens who believe in the end of days “often resist policies trading short-term costs for hypothetical long-term benefits.” (And this is where it gets really scary)… “[T]he fact that such an overwhelming percentage of Republican citizens profess a belief in the Second Coming (76 percent in 2006, according to our sample) suggests that governmental attempts to curb greenhouse emissions would encounter stiff resistance even if every Democrat in the country wanted to curb them,” Barker and Bearce wrote in the study.

There is one religious leader who has the guts to stand up for the environment and that’s Pope Francis. The 76 year old described the church’s mission as “respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live.” But he seems to be the only one among a sea of thousands who deny anything is wrong.

Its one thing for talk show hosts and fundamentalist religious groups to deny climate change or see it as a sign from God, but when the ones who make laws believe this nonsense we are in trouble! Last April, Republican Congressman, Joe Barton told  at the Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing that would give Congress the authority approve the Keystone pipeline, “If you believe in the Bible, one would have to say the Great Flood is an example of climate change. That certainly wasn’t because man had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy.”

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who sits on the House Science Committee, argued that climate change was a ‘total fraud’ and a pretext by liberals to create world government.

Speaking before a House Energy Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing in March, 2009,  Republican Congressman John Shimkus, said we should not worry about the Earth being destroyed because God promised Noah after the Great Flood, it wouldn’t happen again.

And this is just the short list of nutcases we elected to represent us! Let’s say for a minute this is true. Doesn’t the Bible have several verses about being good stewards? Is this how we show our gratitude to an almighty God, by crapping all over the place he built for us to live? Aren’t we supposed to take care of the planet?

So on the one hand we have sociopaths who exploit the planet and all living creatures for the sake of money. On the other hand we have delusional nutcases refusing to admit to the destruction we humans are doing because they think God is handling it.  Both groups seem to be in charge and what few who remain with any sort of input (like from Congress) seem to be going along for the ride. How can we possibly put together a real plan to stop this catastrophe when we are fighting against this type of delusional, sociopathic thinking?

There has to be some moderate Christian believers that want to do something to stop climate change. Isn’t there? Maybe not. According to Anthony Leiserowitz, Research Scientist and Director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, Christians no longer deny climate change but they don’t see it as a bad thing.  In the world-view of the religious, there is a theological escape-hatch that will engage so as to avoid the most catastrophic of predicaments. When it comes to being devastated by hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, land-slides, earthquakes, and other assorted disasters, there’s never any shortage of Christians who say: “Well, I know that God is good and this somehow fits into his plan.”.

What kind of attitude is that besides delusional? I got news for them — there is no escaping Earth. This is it. No Mars landing. No Moon landing. No repopulating another planet. What happens to one, happens to all. If this one goes, we go. This is not some Hollywood Sci-fi movie. Its real life!

There has to be more going on here than just ones religious views. I understand the thinking of one who stands to lose a great deal of money by complying with environmental standards, but everyday people? This might shed some light. Bryan Walsh came up with an interesting theory in “Time Magazine’s Science and Space“:

… Even in places like Western Europe, where belief in climate science tends to be much stronger, it’s hard to build support for the actual steps to reduce carbon emissions. Human beings have a hard time dealing not just with pain, but also with long-term problems, especially ones that don’t necessarily show immediate effects. Whether it’s planning for retirement or losing weight, we find it too easy to disregard very clear science — and disregard our long-term health — in order to satiate our immediate desires. There’s no excuse for the sort of half-fictions and outright lies that too often make up the climate-change-denial machine, but it’s human psychology — as much as politics — that’s preventing us from dealing with one of the greatest threats the species faces. The most powerful denial machine of all may be the one inside our heads.

But even so, are we willing to throw away the future of their children because some guy wrote something in a book thousands of years ago, when the author believed the earth was flat, or are we apathetic, since most of us have not experienced catastrophic events… yet?  Are we willing to stand by and allow these sociopaths and nutcases destroy our planet, or are we willing to stand up to them and do something about it?