Musings by Ed Anderson — Climate change denial echoes Big Tobacco

“If you really think that the environment is less important that the economy, try holding your breath while you count your money.” —Guy McPherson 

Do you remember the Marlboro man? He was the rugged cowboy image the tobacco industry used to promote filtered cigarettes, which were previously viewed as feminine. Ironically, five actors who appeared in Marlboro ads died of smoking-related diseases, thus earning the cigarette the nickname “cowboy killers.”

The tobacco industry has long influenced our habits with a deliberate campaign to promote smoking and tobacco use. They funded studies meant to refute the scientific evidence that smoking caused cancer and other medical problems. The funding and deception worked for many years until the evidence overwhelmed their deception.

Today, regulations have reduced the promotion of tobacco products. Gone are the ads on TV and radio, cigarette vending machines, sponsorships of sporting events and concerts. The result is a sharp drop in tobacco use. The smoke-filled bars, lounges and other venues are no longer.

Eventually, public health and science won over corporate profits.

There is a natural progression by cigarette users from denial to resignation. Younger smokers will deny that smoking will kill them or alternatively say that they can stop soon enough to avoid the illnesses caused by smoking. In either case, they assume that the warning on the pack will not happen to them. This works in the short run, because the health risks of smoking do not become obvious for decades.

Consider the comparison of smoking with climate change and the corporate response. Like the tobacco industry, the fossil fuel industry has funded studies to undermine the scientific evidence that climate change is real and causing damage to not only individuals but to the planet. 

Like smoking, we have become addicted to a fossil fuel lifestyle that is causing great harm. This addiction causes some to deny the scientific evidence and assume that they will not suffer the consequences. This denial may eventually abate when a heat dome, major hurricane, prolonged drought or other related climate change directly affects them.

However, we should be aware of the next response of an addict — resignation. The attitude that adverse consequences are inevitable and therefore they have no need to change. What is done is done. 

There are climate change deniers who have entered that phase. I would agree that we are in for a rough ride due to our prior choices of burning fossil fuels. However, I believe that humans are very adaptable and can work to slow the adverse consequences of climate change if we act determinably and forcefully. 

A new frontier awaits us where American technology, innovation and determination can lead the world. Presently, however, we are doing the exact opposite when we pay renewable energy companies to cancel projects, remove incentives for domestic solar on homes and defund research.

We will not air-condition our way out of catastrophic global climate change. That only adds fuel to the flames.

It is urgent to shut down the old, poisonous ways of creating energy and replace them with clean renewables. Clean renewable energy is increasingly becoming less expensive, even if we do not include the gigantic costs of fossil fuel externalities from cancer, heart disease and respiratory illnesses, as well as losses to agriculture and forestry. Now we can include economic losses due to extreme heat.

Enough is enough. Any politician fighting to delay the energy transition serving fossil fuel interests should be tarred and feathered and run out of office. It is an economic imperative in addition to health and national security.

When you ask why we are so involved in the Middle East conflicts, oil is the answer. Imagine if we had spent the billions and billions of dollars on our wars on renewable energy projects.

Not only would we reduce our carbon footprint and climate changing consequences, we would have energy independence and local job growth.

We can build the solutions for tomorrow so that our country can prosper.

Our goal for the next 250 years is more sustainability, more innovation, more American idealism, and a belief that America can lead the world and not retreat from it. That needs to be the next American revolution.

Ed Anderson taught science for more than 30 years in Triopia and farmed. After retiring from teaching, he and his wife of 52 years have dedicated their time and energy to habitat improvement and restoration on the farm. That includes planting more than 4,500 trees, removing invasive species and restoring wetlands.