NEW YORK – Despite suffering through one of the hottest summers on record, Americans are finding that their previous concerns about the possible long-term effects of global warming have been nearly eradicated as a result of their newfound fears about the global debt crisis.
“Honestly, I had almost completely forgotten about global warming until you asked about it,” said construction worker Craig Wilson, as he paused to wipe his brow at the building site of the new Freedom Tower in lower Manhattan.
“I’ve been so mad about the gridlock in Congress over the debt ceiling that the whole global warming thing just slipped my mind,” he noted.
And he’s not alone. With the U.S.’s recent near-default on its debt obligations, its continuing high unemployment, and the looming prospects of a double-dip recession, a new survey finds that Americans are now so frightened about the nation’s economic outlook that the threat of devastating worldwide climate change barely registers on their personal fear dashboards.
As she tried to cool off by dipping her feet in the reflecting pool in front of her midtown office building, investment analyst Elizabeth Morton commented, “Now that you mention it, I sort of remember something about…what was it? The icecaps melting? Or sea levels rising? Or was it both? Is that still going on?
“I feel like I haven’t heard anything about that lately. Not that I care. Did you see the report in the Times this morning about the possible impact of the country’s downgraded credit rating? Now that’s scary!”
Indeed, a review of the nation’s leading media reveals a precipitous decline in recent news coverage related to climate change, as newspapers, magazines, and broadcast networks continue to focus nearly all their attention on the country’s economic decline and political infighting.
For example, while the front page of today’s Washington Post carries six separate articles on the debt crisis and the 2012 election, the paper’s only climate-related story does not appear until page 38, a brief one-column report headlined, “Hey, Has Anyone Seen Antarctica Lately?”
“Thanks to the global debt crisis as a whole, and especially the economic implosion here at home, Americans are finally enjoying a respite from worries over the long-term fate of our planet,” observes Dr. Leonard McGill, head of the sociology department at Columbia University.
“While previously they may have been horrified at the prospect of leaving their children and grandchildren a barren natural wasteland, today they are far too terrified about their own short-term survival to give such environmental worries much thought.”
“In sum,” Dr. McGill concludes, “our fears about global warming seem to be gently melting away like the snow on Mt. Kilimanjaro and then pleasantly evaporating like the global supply of fresh water.”
Fine piece of writing here. You capture the messed up prioritizing by Americans perfectly.
Climate Change wasn’t about forests or sustainablility or energy or liitle kids planting little cute trees. It was a 25 year old CO2 death threat to billions of children and thankfully, a tragic exaggeration.
Even the remaining CO2 Crisis believers don’t believe in Climate Change themselves, for if they did, they and the thousands of saintly scientists would be marching and crying about the worst planetary emergency ever; Climate Crisis. Besides a comet hit, NOTHING could be worse than a climate crisis. NOTHING! If the scientists themselves believed it, they would be marching and crying and warning the world and be all over CNN and actually ACTING like it’s a real crisis. And since the scientists strangely outnumber the protesters, we former believers smell a rat. We former believers are the real planet lovers for we don’t wish and pray and hope for this misery to have been true. So until we see the believers and scientists acting like it is the crisis they all say it is, we former believers accuse the lab coat consultants of exaggeration, opportunism and exploitation. And here is the proof of exaggeration; the scientists all had their own special and unique and personal definitions of Human CO2’s effects. This wasn’t science, it was a consultant’s w*t-dream.
The new denier is anyone who thinks the former believer majority of voters you see now, will vote YES to taxing the air to make the weather colder. And since Obama never even mentioned the crisis in his last state of the union address with no reaction from the blood sucking scientists, we declare climate blame dead. REAL planet lovers are happy for the planet avoiding a crisis. You fear mongering liars of CO2 environMENTAL ism are being cursed in the history books.