The Sky Really Is Falling

Click here to access article by Chris Hedges from TruthDig.

The rapid and terrifying acceleration of global warming, which is disfiguring the ecosystem at a swifter pace than even the gloomiest scientific studies predicted a few years ago, has been confronted by the power elite with two kinds of self-delusion. There are those, many of whom hold elected office, who dismiss the science and empirical evidence as false. There are others who accept the science surrounding global warming but insist that the human species can adapt.

Unfortunately his solution is, like most US progressives, very short sighted:

...the rapid dismantling of the fossil fuel industry...

He, and Bill McKibben whom he quotes extensively, both completely miss the fact that growth oriented capitalism cannot exist without the continued use of fossil fuels.

“The only way around this is to defeat the system, and the name of that system is the fossil fuel industry, which is the most profitable industry in the world by a large margin,” McKibben said.

Of course, the name of the system is capitalism, fossil fuels is only a source of energy. But academics such as McKibben would be severely punished by academic authorities if he were to name the system accurately. I'm not sure what Hedges' excuse is.