\n\tThe late years of the nineteenth century and even the early ones of the twentieth were filled with the promise of a better, more hopeful future.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cTherefore, gentlemen,\u201d declared Werner von Siemens (founder of the company that still bears his name) in the late nineteenth century, \u201cwe will not be
\n\tshaken in our belief that our research and inventive activity leads mankind to higher levels of culture, ennobling it and making it more accessible to
\n\tideal aspirations, that the impending scientific age will diminish its hardships and its sickness, enhance its enjoyment of life, and make it better,
\n\thappier, and more content with its fate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt was paradise,\u201d wrote Jean-Paul Sartre, of those early years of the twentieth century. \u201cThe miraculous era when cinema, radio, the telephone, the
\n\tautomobile, and the airplane were born. The earth seemed nearly conquered by the joint efforts of Western imperialism and technological promise.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOne event did, somewhat, shatter that optimism: World War I, by far the most devastating human-made catastrophe to date. That was, at least until World War
\n\tII, which followed closely behind and, of course, was much worse.<\/p>\n
\n\tWith such history still fairly fresh in our collective conscience, unsurprisingly most people didn\u2019t greet the beginning of the twenty-first century with
\n\tthe optimism that their great-grandparents did the twentieth.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd with good reason. The technology that was supposed to enrich our lives might, instead, end them. Putting aside the threats of a nuclear catastrophe,
\n\tISIS, or Vladimir Putin, the big fear now comes from \u201cclimate change,\u201d a contemporary euphemism for air pollution. Only this time the problem is not just
\n\tdirty air over Beijing or smog over Los Angeles. Instead, the fear is nothing less than the survival of the planet. So vast and consequential are the
\n\tpotential issues that even Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church weighed in, warning that \u201cthe destruction of the human environment is extremely
\n\tserious\u201d and that we must \u201cescape the spiral of self-destruction that currently engulfs us\u201d because of climate change.<\/p>\n
\n\tWith the belief that such an apocalyptic threat awaits the world, it would certainly be worthwhile to remember how, at times of other real (or even
\n\tperceived) dangers, the most basic freedoms and liberties came under assault for a \u201cgood\u201d cause. And, as far as good causes go, they don\u2019t get better than,
\n\tas Al Gore warned, \u201cthe truly catastrophic damages that have the potential for ending civilization,\u201d which we supposedly face from climate change. In other
\n\twords, if any cause were worth trampling on freedoms, this would be it.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe scientific consensus is that yes, climate change is real, and presents a bona fide threat. Of course, the \u201cscientific consensus\u201d on numerous
\n\tthings—from a geocentric cosmos (the prevailing scientific consensus for 1300 years), to spontaneous generation, to the absolute nature of time and space,
\n\tto an eternally existing universe, to the dangers of saturated fat—have been revised, revamped, and overthrown down through the ages. The scientific
\n\tconsensus of one generation can become myths to another.<\/p>\n
\n\tWorse is that the rancid politicization of the climate change dialogue makes matters more confusing. President Obama warns about the \u201curgent and growing
\n\tthreat\u201d of a changing climate, while GOP primary candidate Marco Rubio says that \u201cwe are not going to make America a harder place to create jobs in order
\n\tto pursue policies that will do absolutely nothing, nothing to change our climate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOn one level, whether or not the science behind climate change is correct is beside the point. What is the point is that many believe it is, which means
\n\tthat a lot of people, some with great political influence and power, fear that—unless massive changes soon take place—grave danger awaits us all.<\/p>\n
\n\tAmong those dangers? Well, for one, rising sea levels, which can destroy coastal habitation. Rainfall changes might lead to increased flooding. On the
\n\tother side of that coin is the possibility of increased droughts. Global temperature change will bring more life-threatening heat waves, more hurricanes
\n\tand typhoons of greater intensity. And don\u2019t forget about rising acidity in the oceans, making them less hospitable for sea life.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cClimate change is one of the most serious public health threats facing the nation,\u201d warns the Natural Resources Defense Council, \u201cbut few people are aware
\n\tof how it can affect them. Children, the elderly, and communities living in poverty are among the most vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe United States Pentagon says that climate change is an \u201curgent and growing threat to our national security\u201d and blames it for \u201cincreased natural
\n\tdisasters\u201d that will require more American troops designated to combat bad weather.<\/p>\n
\n\tA report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says: \u201cOver the next twenty years, we can expect more and intense
\n\tclimatic hazards everywhere. Particularly at risk are those communities located in areas prone to floods, cyclones, and drought. Suffering repeated
\n\tclimatic shocks depletes their resources and makes them reliant on external assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDemocratic candidate Martin O\u2019Malley even blamed climate change for the rise of ISIS. \u201cOne of the things that preceded the failure of the nation-state of
\n\tSyria and the rise of ISIS,\u201d he said, \u201cwas the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that region, wiped out farmers, drove people to
\n\tcities, created a humanitarian crisis. It created the symptoms, or, rather, the conditions, of extreme poverty that has led now to the rise of ISIL and
\n\tthis extreme violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen everything, from the rise of ISIS to the potential of mass starvation, is being linked to climate change, civil libertarians need be vigilant
\n\tbecause—if the past is any precursor to the future—nothing, including freedom, will be allowed to stand in the way of defense against such dire threats.<\/p>\n
\n\tBecause many of the most fearful forecasts for climate change are based on computer models projecting 30-50 years out, it\u2019s hard to know if things are as
\n\tbad as claimed. Again, it doesn\u2019t matter. What matters only is that enough people think they are. Hence, the potential danger to the civil liberties of
\n\tanyone seen as adding to, or hindering any solution to, a danger that could destroy us all.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor instance, the New York attorney general has begun an investigation of ExxonMobil to determine whether the company lied to the public about the risks of
\n\tclimate change or to investors about how such risks might hurt the oil business. Meanwhile, Peabody Energy, the nation\u2019s largest coal producer, had already
\n\tbeen under investigation by the New York attorney general for two years in regard to questions about whether it properly disclosed financial risks related
\n\tto climate change. Though with the exception of stockholders and the energy executives themselves, who is going to lose sleep over energy giants getting
\n\tinvestigated for lying? But the more important question is How far could this go?<\/p>\n
\n\tVaclac Klaus, for 10 years (2003-2013) president of the Czech Republic, warned that attempts to curb greenhouse gas emissions are an attack on freedom
\n\titself.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt seems to me,\u201d he said, \u201cthat the widespread acceptance of the global warming dogma has become one of the main, most costly, and most undemocratic
\n\tpublic policy mistakes in generations.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe previous one was Communism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCloser to home, the conservative Heritage Foundation fears that federal government talk about climate change isn\u2019t to protect us but is \u201cto justify taxing,
\n\tregulating, and controlling us. It\u2019s about making us poorer and less free.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOne could argue, perhaps, that the hype about the potential dangers to freedom posed by attempts to deal with climate change is as hyped as are the
\n\twarnings of the dangers posed by climate change. Maybe? But the historical record shows that freedom always takes a back seat to danger, real or perceived.<\/p>\n
\n\tHowever much Americans took their Constitution seriously, few had many qualms about the outrageous ways Abraham Lincoln trampled upon it amid the dangerous
\n\tdays of the Civil War.<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring World War I the federal government restricted freedoms, especially freedom of speech, in ways that most Americans today would find incomprehensible,
\n\tyet were deemed necessary for the immediate crisis.<\/p>\n
\n\tToday Americans look in horror on how we treated Japanese-Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a minor brawl in contrast to the fate that awaits
\n\tthe earth according to climate change predictions.<\/p>\n
\n\tEven after September 11, Americans were able to tolerate things like the Patriot Act and other restrictions they were told could keep them safer. However,
\n\tthe threat of al-Qaeda is nothing compared to rising sea levels, massive droughts, and the inevitable destruction of New Orleans and Miami and many other
\n\tcities because of climate change.<\/p>\n
\n\tEven this nation, which has paved the way for the world when it comes to freedom, has shown—in response to threats far less than \u201cthe potential for ending
\n\tcivilization\u201d—a willingness to trample on basic rights.<\/p>\n
\n\tCould we be facing something similar as the fear of climate change grows? It would be naive to think otherwise.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn his recent encyclical on climate change and the environment, Laudato si\u2019, Pope Francis added a new phrase to religious vocabulary: a \u201csin against
\n\tcreation,\u201d a euphemism for anything that adds to climate change. Working on the assumption that the scientific consensus regarding climate change was valid
\n\tand that \u201cthings are now reaching a breaking point,\u201d the pope then talked about the need for a global political authority that would enforce whatever was
\n\tbelieved needed to save us from disaster.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cEnforceable international agreements are urgently needed, since local authorities are not always capable of effective intervention,\u201d he wrote. He said too
\n\tthat, given the current situation, \u201cit is essential to devise stronger and more efficiently organized international institutions, with functionaries who
\n\tare appointed fairly by agreement among national governments and empowered to impose sanctions. As Benedict XVI has affirmed in continuity with the social
\n\tteaching of the church: \u2018To manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the
\n\tgreater imbalances that would result; to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the
\n\tenvironment and to regulate migration: for all this, there is urgent need of a true world political authority, as my predecessor Blessed John XXIII
\n\tindicated some years ago.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tA true world political authority? On one hand, the pope isn\u2019t saying anything that others haven\u2019t said. On the other, who would this world political
\n\tauthority be, what would be its powers, and how would they be enforced? Neither Francis, nor Benedict, his immediate predecessor, whom he quoted, was
\n\tspecific, other than to say that the threat is so great that whatever needs to be done to stop it must be globally enforced.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor now, such a political authority doesn\u2019t seem overtly plausible or particularly threatening. Hard to imagine any power, in and of itself, being able to
\n\tpull that off. However, the biblical book of Revelation does warn of an end-time confederation of political and religious powers that will be exceedingly
\n\trepressive.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd although it\u2019s only speculation now, what could bring about such global unity other than a global threat, and what could be deemed more of a global
\n\tthreat than the destruction of our globe because of climate change?<\/p>\n
\n\tRepression, persecution, and loss of liberty have come from a lot less.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The late years of the nineteenth century and even the early ones of the twentieth were filled with the promise of a better, more hopeful future. \u201cTherefore, gentlemen,\u201d declared Werner von Siemens (founder of the company that still bears his name) in the late nineteenth century, \u201cwe will not be shaken in our belief that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[311],"tags":[143],"class_list":["post-6346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-march-april-2016","tag-march-april-2016"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}