"Unwelcome truth is better than cherished error" - attributed by Google to E G Conklin, 1936 president of the American Association for Advancement of Science. This dictum comes to mind when the Tennessean publishes columns of Thomas Sowell, Cal Thomas and now Phil Valentine as well as numerous letters repeating conservative talk-show rejections of scientific findings demonstrating global warming, the causes and consequences of its accelerating time course. Is it possible that these writers cherish their errors because they are wedded to Reaganism?
Beginning in 1980 I judged from Reagan's campaign slogans and policy initiatives about free trade, deregulation, taxation and family planning that he would usher in a period of increasing and accelerating resource depletion, destruction of natural support systems (oceans, soils), off-shoring of manufacturing jobs, transfer of wealth from American laborers to managers and investors, negative trade balance, government debt, bankruptcy rate, homelessness, world overpopulation, population dislocations, resource wars, anxiety and paranoia - all this for a temporary delay of inflation. Global warming, we now know, is another consequence of Reagan's faith in unfettered market forces as sufficient determinants of economic decisions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment