Dear Editor:

The editorial opinion by Kevin Killough published on April 26 is an example of the evolving corporate propaganda campaign of climate change denial and doubt that is being exposed in the “Frontline” series “The Power of Big Oil” now playing on PBS. This campaign has evolved from initial total denial to an acknowledgment that climate change is happening but any significant steps to confront it are a threat to the economy, meaning corporate profits.

The editorial reads like a page out of the corporate playbook revealed in the PBS series. It harks back to the old bogeyman Paul Ehrlich while completely ignoring the massive amount of recent scientific evidence of stress in the biosphere, based on real-time data, that is available to anyone every day now. Painting the many well-documented warnings as “hysteria” or “exaggeration” or “politicization of the issues” is worse than “opinion” — it’s a political tactic. Blaming serious science for “generating undue skepticism” is itself part of the tactic of generating doubt. Saying that the world hasn’t ended yet is the logic of the man who jumps out of the window and, midway in his fall, says his trip is going well.

At the root of this editorial’s point of view is the belief in human supremacy, which discounts all other living systems that support human life and each other on this finite planet, and which are all under stress. If you seriously follow the news you will see stories about the human impact on other species, including wild animals, birds, fish, amphibians, pollinators and more. You will see reports of the degradation of soils and threats to food production, of rising temperatures worldwide, causing unprecedented storms and flooding. You will see reports of thawing permafrost and rising levels of methane in the atmosphere, of garbage islands in the ocean and microplastics everywhere. There is much, much more. Is all of this evidence so easy to dismiss and ignore? Is this really something to celebrate?

Whatever your view of the role of human activity in creating this obvious global crisis, saying that we humans have been “spectacularly successful in making the world a better place in which to live” is a case of complacent tunnel vision, with a heavy dose of science denial, in support of Business As Usual. We humans should be doing much better at seeing our situation “honestly” and realistically.

Lawrence Parker

Cody

(Editor’s Note: I want to thank Mr. Parker for sharing his perspective on my April 26 editorial “Earth Day should be a celebration of success.” We encourage our readers to engage us on our opinion page.  However, I want to respond to the implication that I’m influenced, financially or otherwise, by oil corporations. My only source of income is the Powell Tribune, and my role on the editorial board does not require me to take any perspectives other than the ones I personally hold. — Kevin Killough, Tribune News Editor)