Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumFirst Florida, Now Wisconsin, Bans the Words ‘Climate Change’
4/10/2015
The idea that you can make climate change go away by not talking about it is spreading.
One month ago, we heard how officials and staff at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection were ordered not to use the terms climate change or global warming even when they were discussing the all-too-obvious impacts to their vulnerable state.
Now its Wisconsins turn. The staff of its Board of Commissioners of Public Lands (BCPL) has been told they cant even discuss climate change, no matter what they call it. Staff members arent even permitted to respond to emails on the subject, following a vote this week by the three-member panel overseeing the agency.
It includes two Republicans and one Democrat and the vote was 2-1.
Its not a part of our sole mission, which is to make money for our beneficiaries, State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk, a Republican member of the panel, told Bloomberg Business. Thats what I want our employees working on. Thats it. Managing our trust funds....
He suggested any emails relating to climate change be forwarded to the oversight board.
The Wisconsin BCPL oversees income-producing land to help fund schools and communities. The lands include some that receive income from the timber industry, which can be affected by such climate change impacts as droughts, wildfires and harmful insects....
..Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette, who chairs the oversight panel and voted against the measure, said afterward, Having been on this board for close to 30 years, Ive never seen such nonsense. Weve reached the point now where were going to try to gag employees from talking about issues, in this case, climate change.
...This surely comes as good news to Koch-funded Governor Scott Walker who has signaled he wants to be the candidate for the Climate Change Denial Caucus, said NextGen Climate. Walker has signed a Koch-backed anti-climate pledge...
http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/04/10/first-florida-now-wisconsin-bans-the-words-climate-change/
newfie11
(8,159 posts)That's intelligent! I fear my country is going backwards at warp speed.
Shrike47
(6,913 posts)RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Turbineguy
(37,375 posts)"The Effect That Cannot Be Named"?
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)No words to replace Climate Change in WI Public Lands dept, just can't address it, period.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)I mean, c'mon! We've had three decades of deteriorating logic and reason in public discourse. Ever since "trickle down," we've been subjected to questionable concepts that purportedly supported a political view. But now it's beyond mere politics. It's no longer "we can agree to disagree," but rather a multi-decade concerted effort to dumb-down the body politic.
I'm getting sick and tired of the oligarch-controlled media putting up the likes of Bush, Palin, Cruz, Paul and the rest of those pathetic clowns as if they possessed the intellect and vision to oversee the commonweal and therefore worthy of our attention. I'm getting sick and tired of them being treated as "newsworthy" as they gurgle night after night, day after day, the most asinine, clueless sound bites that lack any knowledge and understanding whatsoever.
I'm just getting sick and tired of it all.
Novara
(5,857 posts)I'm embarrassed that time and time again the US looks like complete fools for not only giving these idiots legitimacy, but for electing them!
ladjf
(17,320 posts)medieval laws? nt
Turbineguy
(37,375 posts)It's become a self sustaining downward spiral.
ladjf
(17,320 posts)I fear that somehow the dumb are breeding with the dumb, producing even dumber offspring. Either that or some sort of
environmental problem in the air, water or food that's numbing people's brains. Right-wing religious ideology certainly isn't helping either.
Nihil
(13,508 posts)... and far more of them too - breeding like yeast and with the same level of intelligence.
Right-wing religious ideology is just fuel/nutrition to the underlying problem that there
are too many stupid selfish & greedy people on the planet.
And that *is* an exponential growth!
ladjf
(17,320 posts)Now, the big question is, what can the human race do about this?
Nihil
(13,508 posts)We are being swamped by (deliberate) ignorance & destructive stupidity,
both enabled & actively supported by the (extremely) powerful moneyed factions.
The only way to counter such a mindset would require a fascist approach
(i.e., doesn't matter what people believe to be their "right to destroy", it
has to be revoked for the sake of the future) yet that same fascist approach
is impossible without the backing of the same powerful moneyed factions
that are currently hell bent on f*cking the planet for short term profit.
The "human race" - assuming you mean "current human civilisation" - as a whole is screwed.
It is going to change in many very unpleasant & frighteningly rapid ways over the coming years.
The only thing "we" - i.e., the aware minority who are not part of the 0.01% - can do
about this is on a very local level indeed: spread education, truth & love to try to
alleviate the pain for the coming generations and give them a slightly better chance
of survival than the horde being sent over the cliff happy with their "reality TV",
iPhones, guns & religions.
For that "slightly better chance" for them, I work, I study, I share ... yet I cannot
pretend that I do not also despair at times over the sheer futility of my own actions.