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extent and anthropogenic carbon emissions seem to be playing some kind of role, they
admit, it is so uncertain, they claim, how great the human role is and consequently
what action, if any, needs to be taken to restrict the use of fossil fuels that it would
be unreasonable to impose inconvenience or cost on those with vested interests in
coal, oil, and gas. We should just wait and perhaps matters will become clearer
later (when they can be dealt with by other people, perhaps employing NETs).34
This might be lazy ignorance and superficial thinking in the service of unbridled
self-interest – moral corruption. A different explanation of their behaviour would be
that they know better and are simply lying to the public while promoting fossil fuel
interests, as ExxonMobil has done for decades – presenting what Trump’s Orwellian
propagandist Kellyanne Conway called ‘alternative facts’. Whichever it is – morally
corrupted thinking, bald lying, or a muddled mixture of both – we ought to fight against
it in every effective way. The people of this planet need to confront facts: ambitious
mitigation is urgent now. If Washington is for now lost in self-serving dreaming, the
rest of the world, including state and city governments in the US, must engage reality
all the more firmly. As Jerry Brown, the Governor of California, put it in response to
current Washington myth-making, ‘above all else, we have to live in the truth. When
the science is clear … we must say so, not construct some alternate universe of nonfacts that we find more pleasing’.35
34. C Mooney, ‘Trump Appointees on Climate Change: Not a Hoax, But Not a Big Deal
Either’ (2017) Washington Post, 13 January 2017, <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/
energy-environment/wp/2017/01/13/trump-appointees-on-climate-change-not-fake-not-a-bigdeal-either/?utm_term=.b37e797c8069&wpisrc=nl_green&wpmm=1> accessed 2 May 2017.
35. K Tumulty, ‘Trump’s Disregard for the Truth Threatens his Ability to Govern’ (2017)
Washington Post, 24 February, <https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-disregardfor-the-truth-threatens-his-ability-to-govern/2017/01/24/945c81aa-e272-11e6-a45319ec4b3d09ba_story.html?utm_term=.fb32e9a9c545> accessed 30 April 2017.
© 2017 The Author
Journal compilation © 2017 Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd