The Green Dream concept interests me—easy for Fox News to put down, but it was simply introduced in Congress to inspire imagination. The topic first interested me when, as a fledgling academic in 1977, I studied “zero-growth” economics to see how to make capitalism sustainable. Of course, ZG was unworkable. In a book I almost memorized,”Human Prospect” (1974), Heilbroner wrote: “If by the question, ‘Is there hope for man?’ you are asking…(then he goes through a long diatribe about things that won’t change, eg, capitalism and other immutable human realities)…”Then the answer must be: No, there is no such hope.”
This debate is centuries old, since Malthus at least; but calls for alarm keep getting debunked. The Club of Rome predicted the earth’s natural capacity would be exhausted, but mistakenly identified resource depletion rather than capacity for garbage, so that was debunked, too. By Reagan’s time, it was still easy to laugh at the doomsayers, which he did, and all his followers sing the same tune today. Fox’s Special Report devoted this entire week to debunk Ocasio’s Green New Deal, and to most listeners, Fox makes more sense than she does. (Few listeners understand what socialism might be about, so they find a receptive audience on that editorial strategy, too.)
Even in our lifetimes, we are seeing alarming phenomena. Anyhow, I am trying to conjure up images of a future world when my own Laguna Beach village is inundated. By that time, much of Florida will be too, but in California we can head for the Sierras, or at least up Skyline Drive. So what care I? But there will be huge inflows of refugees not only from islands like Maldives, but from large population centers like Bangladesh. Already we are hostile to refugees, but Trumpian strategies won’t be allowed by civilized countries, so we must help. Heilbroner predicted economic collapse, and once market players get the gist, where are they going to put their money? Trump Towers? Surrounded by security walls? Oh, I get it, our president can see this coming!
Douglas Sikrski, Laguna Beach
Douglas, you never left the “fledgling academic” stage. You’re “seeing alarming phenomena.” What, exactly? Be precise. Be scientific about it. Don’t just quote alarmists who are raking in billions of research dollars to spread panic with their lies. You already admitted that they keep “getting debunked.” But still you obviously adhere to them. Such is ant-science.
“Huge inflows” of refugees from “the Maldives”? To America? More than the Koreans plus Chinese plus Vietnamese plus Philipinos already here? The Maldives only has 436,000 residents and here’s the clincher: It’s not going underwater. The nonsense claims have, as you admitted, already “been debunked.” Wealthy folks in Laguna beach front homes aren’t in any rush to sell. You think they’re all stupid?
Douglas,
Thank you for bringing our Changing Climate to Laguna’s attention. The coasts will take a real beating.
Several feet of sea level rise is scary
– Freddie Mac has said there could well be a coastal properties value crash as bad as the 2008 mortgage meltdown. Freddie Mac isn’t the Sierra Club.
– Moody’s has now said it will rate Municipal debt based on climate and sea level risk for Coastal communities. https://m.moodys.com/research-preview/Moodys-Climate-change-is-forecast-to-heighten-US-exposure-to–PR_376056?
We need to start the conversation of where will sea walls go and how will they be paid for?