Rather than blame undocumented immigrants for the fires ravaging his home state, Sen. John McCain should be educating the public about something he used to profess to know something about: the climate crisis.
At a press conference last Saturday, McCain said, “There is substantial evidence that some of these fires have been caused by people who have crossed our border illegally.”
This isn’t the first time McCain has talked about seeing the “substantial evidence.” In a 2008 speech at a wind turbine facility in Portland, McCain said of climate change, “No longer do we need to rely on guesswork and computer modeling, because satellite images reveal a dramatic disappearance of glaciers, Antarctic ice shelves and polar ice sheets. And I've seen some of this evidence up close.”
John McCain’s transformation from climate Dr. Jeckyll to anti-immigrant Mr. Hyde is a challenge for climate and a immigrant rights activists to find common ground.
Climate scientists have studied not only how increased global warming exacerbates fires across the western United States, but also how the drought caused by climate disruption drives more and more people in Mexico and across Central America to leave their parched homes and risk their lives to find work in el norte. A 2010 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that climate change's impacts on crop yields may force as many as seven million Mexicans to emigrate to the U.S. over the next 70 years.
Now, the very immigrants that were driven from their homes by the climate crisis are being blamed for its impacts.
As climate disruption continues, it will exacerbate social conflict around the world. As Christian Parenti writes in his new book on climate conflict, Tropic of Chaos, “The United Nations has estimated that all but one of its emergency appeals for humanitarian aid in 2007 were climate related.”
The US border is not the only place where the conflict is coming to a head. India is already building a militarized fence along its 2,500 mile border with Bangladesh, a country that could see 22 million people forced from their homes by 2050 because of climate change.
Weathering the storm of the coming century will require immigrant rights, social justice, and environmental advocates to come together to offer a new vision of how society must deal with the multiple crises we face. Instead of building walls to stop the flow of climate refugees, we need to be building fair and sustainable economies that allow people to stay in their homes. And when refugees are forced to flee extreme weather, we need to show solidarity with one another, rather than cast blame on the most vulnerable.
In a different world, one could imagine Sen. McCain being a voice of reason on these issues. Instead, he’s decided to fan the flames of conflict. Let’s hope that by working together, we can begin to put out the fires.
Follow Jamie Henn on Twitter: www.twitter.com/agent350
11:46 PM on 6/24/2011
“CO2 is good for the planet. I run a green house. we pump in about 2% Co2 and it doubles our food production. we sjopuld think seriously about making ity mandantory¬, to drive your car twice as much to get our CO2 levels up!”
here is the link to see what else this guy posted
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/23/arizona-wildfire-endangered-species-animals_n_883567.html
Just scroll down to see what else the people of Arizona had to say about the fire and on an article about the loss of endangered species due to the fire. The comments are disgusting and will show you the type of mentality that is promoted in that state. It is honestly worse than any ware else in America. This is why Arizona is last in science in the country; because people like this guy promote this insane ideology of resisting anything that hints at climate change or the possibility of changing their way of life. Such a lack of intelligence is very dangerous for our country especially because it is being encouraged in Arizona. Anyone who thinks they should drive their car twice a day to increase the CO2 levels on the planet for the sake of plants is INSANE!
The ILLEGAN IMMIGRANTS, drug smugglers, gang-bangers, and terrorist affiliates that cross our southern border should remain forever blameless. Let's blame T. E. Lawrence instead for setting the desert on fire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/us/12wildfire.html
And who can trust the media to be unbiased any more?
There is a way to lessen wildfires effectively through thinning our over-dense forests http://bit.ly/iZzy95. Most forest professional ascribe the blame of wildfires to poor forest health and decades of fire suppression policies which have left our forests dangerously overburdened with fuel wood to fuel fires. These same conditions contribute to the pine beetle outbreaks in BC, Colorado, and even New Jersey. wildfires. Thinning not only saves communities but also provides wood feedstock for biomass power, biofuels, and green chemical industries to take root - further industries to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. http://bit.ly/cRCe6t
Also, I'm not sure that we should play down the fact that climate change has played a significant role in these and other natural disasters. Humans are typical more consequence-motivated than theory-motivated. Unfortunately, many people can have the world's top scientific organizations clearly telling them that climate change is real and human caused, and still not pay any attention if they feel the results do not directly affect them. Look at past oil price spikes. We come up with wonderful technologies during the price hikes, and then jump right back into SUVs when the prices drop again. It's just human nature. We need to make it very clearly that climate change and its disastrous effects are happening right now.
What a way to go Senator!
In other words, 1070 is all about keeping the wages low and cowing people into keeping their mouths shut and staying out of the political arena. A shameful example of bad governance by weak people who have no scruples and will do anything to win elections.