The business of tragedy
“ Environmental activists are shamelessly trying to exploit last week's earthquake-tsunami catastrophe in hopes of advancing their global warming and anti-development agendas.”
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The right wing is apparently having the time of its life during this tragedy. First, it accuses liberals of hating America because some people suggested we should give more than the initial $35m in aid (less than the inauguration tab). Now, because some environmentalists have mentioned the growing incidence of natural disasters in recent times, and perhaps suggested we might look into it, raving industry shills like Milloy are screaming bloody murder, that the left is exploiting the tragedy to prop up our agenda.
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Environmental activists claimed the tsunamis were a result of global warming. "Environmental activists are shamelessly trying to exploit last week's earthquake-tsunami catastrophe in hopes of advancing their global warming and anti-development agendas. "Two days after the tragedy, the executive director of Greenpeace UK told the British newspaper The Independent, 'No one can ignore the relentless increase in extreme weather events and so-called natural disasters, which in reality are no more natural than a plastic Christmas tree.' "Friends of the Earth Director Tony Juniper told the same British newspaper, 'Here again are yet more events in the real world that are consistent with climate change predictions.'" |
Both of these quotes were taken out of their context in an article in The Independent of Britain about the many natural disasters of 2004, most of which were climate-related and not simply ascribable to tectonic activity. The text directly preceding these quotes, and the insurance industry quotes Milloy also lifts, make clear what they are actually talking about: "Losses caused by natural disasters, most of them climate-related and headed by hurricanes in America and typhoons in Japan, leapt for the first time to more than $ 100bn (pounds 52bn), according to preliminary estimates from the Zurich-based reinsurance giant Swiss Re. The remarkable sum will intensify the global warming debate, as more extreme weather events, including tropical storms of greater intensity, are among the predicted consequences of climate change. The astonishing storms of the past year are consistent with this, although scientists say it is not yet possible to link them to global warming directly." Both groups have said the statements were made before the tsunami tragedy took place. |
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Greedy insurance companies are legitimizing global warming to line their pockets. "Concerned about large payouts for natural disaster claims, insurance companies are very eager to establish global warming as a contributing factor to those disasters, so they can sue deep-pocket businesses supposedly responsible for that global warming" |
CNN notes that insurance companies are an unlikely supporter of global warming research – but companies are indeed worried about the increasing costs of insuring people against natural disasters. Insurance companies are trying to find a better way to estimate risk and have devoted billions of dollars to researching the causes of these catastophes. It's astonishing that an industry shill like Milloy would turn around and attack market forces, only because the market for once is looking to science rather than ideology when circumstances demand. It would be quite a stretch for an insurer to sue "deep-pocket businesses" for causing natural disasters. A much more obvious motive for research is to adjust their actuarial rates to reflect increasing global risks. |
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Elitist environmentalists don't want poor countries to develop. "It's bad enough that environmentalists continually try to advance their agendas based on what can only be described as comically wrong information. But what's really troubling is that they seem hell-bent on denying poor nations the opportunity to develop economically so as to pull themselves out of their abject poverty." |
FOX falls for the fallacy that preserving the environment is wholly incompatible with development – a notion that has repeatedly been proven false. Prominent international organizations such as the UN, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization have all focused on sustainable development and created several opportunities for it in the States and abroad. |
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The environmental movement is more tragic to humanity than the tsunamis. "The tsunamis are a terrible natural disaster - but they pale in comparison to the not-so-natural disaster known as modern environmentalism." |
As Amanda Griscom writes in Grist Magazine, the right is exploiting the tsunami by screaming that environmentalists are exploiting the tsunami. He’s doing exactly what he accuses environmentalists of doing, by using the crisis for his own ends. |
The right wing is apparently having the time of its life during this tragedy. First, it accuses liberals of hating America because some people suggested we should give more than the initial $35m in aid (less than the inauguration tab). Now, because some environmentalists have mentioned the growing incidence of natural disasters in recent times, and perhaps suggested we might look into it, raving industry shills like Milloy are screaming bloody murder, that the left is exploiting the tragedy to prop up our agenda.
The right doth protest too much.
If they weren't so busy pushing their narrow agenda, we might have a better reputation for generousity in the world, and we might have responsible industrial policing, and this just might -- if we are to believe the consensus of the scientific community rather than a Cato hack -- help to stabilize the climate in an age of increasing environmental risk.
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