By Daren Jonescu ——Bio and Archives--November 19, 2011
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ML: Global warming—yes, no, or you don’t know? NG: I think, I think that I don’t know, but I do know that I’m opposed to cap-and-trade, and I’m opposed to any kind of massive government response. I think there’s no evidence that justifies a large government centralized response of any kind right now. The most you can argue for, I think, is more research.Let’s compare this directly to Gingrich’s past statements on this issue. As I have described in my previous article cited above, in 2007 he stood on a stage with John Kerry, one of the Senate’s leaders on this pseudo-issue. In a direct, prepared response to Kerry’s staged question about how to answer those in the Senate who resist the science of global warming, Gingrich said, “the evidence is sufficient that we should move towards the most effective possible steps to reduce carbon-loading in the atmosphere.” To Kerry’s follow-up ‘question’ as to whether these steps ought to be taken “urgently,” Gingrich replied, “And do it urgently. Yes.” When he said “do it urgently,” what was the “it” he was referring to? More research? And when he said “the evidence is sufficient that we should move... to reduce carbon-loading in the atmosphere,” was this merely an alternative way of saying, “I think that I don’t know”?
“... [W]e do agree our country must take action to address climate change.... If enough of us demand action from our leaders, we can spark the innovation we need.”What action do we need, and why must we demand it, if, as he told Mark Levin, the most the evidence provides grounds for is “more research”? Lest it be argued in Gingrich’s defence that ‘back then’, a lot of people were caught up in the climate change nonsense, whereas now things are clearer for the rational observers among us, keep in mind the following: First of all, ‘back then’, in this case, means 2008. Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was released in 2006, won its Oscar in February of 2007, and Gore, along with the UN’s IPCC, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December of that same year. Global warming was all the rage as a liberal issue, to be sure. However, the debunking of global warming was also in full swing. By May 2008, more than 30,000 scientists (including over 9,000 Ph.D.s) had signed a petition rejecting the “settled science” of anthropogenic global warming. Conservative commentators of all sorts had been tackling the matter directly. Battle lines on the issue had been clearly drawn, and the direct link between the science and politics of climate was readily apparent, as symbolized by the UN’s IPCC, a panel made up of a combination of diplomats and scientists, which releases summary reports that expressly omit or bury the dissenting voices within the panel itself. No one as informed and connected to the political scene as the former Speaker could have failed to know this. Hence, his support of the science was not merely an acceptance of a mainstream idea that had yet to be questioned. Secondly, the simplest tracing of the history of global climate change/warming/cooling reveals that at each stage of the narrative, the scientific claims were tied to specific or general policy proposals—proposals of an explicitly anti-industrial, anti-capitalist, and internationalist nature. Gingrich’s pretense, in his appearance with Kerry, of separating the science from the liberal agenda is bizarrely naive if it is not disingenuous. The science is, and always was, primarily a pretext for the agenda. (This is not to say that every professional researcher who seeks to present supporting evidence for the AGW hypothesis is a leftist. Most scholars in any field are people who accept the presuppositions set before them as they enter that field. In fact, such acceptance is usually necessary for the sake of professional advancement, in addition to being the path of least resistance for an unoriginal thinker working in an intellectual setting. Every academic paradigm needs its worker bees. This includes politically-motivated academic paradigms.) Perhaps I have taken the wrong tack on Gingrich’s global warming position. Perhaps he really doesn’t believe in it at all, in which case he was merely dissembling and pandering to liberals and independents when he staged that ‘green conservatism’ appearance with Kerry, or smiled smarmily at Pelosi in that 2008 public service announcement. There is a deeper issue here, regarding Gingrich’s motives and purposes. His coming-out party on climate change was not a small, personal decision which happened to find its way into an interview somewhere. As I have noted, it was a grand, planned event. He used the appearance with Kerry to stage an applause line, just as he has so effectively done during this year’s debates. Both then and now, he has been careful to orchestrate his crowd-pleasing moments so as to seem to be attacking an enemy shared with both the audience and the putative debate opponents on the stage with him. In 2007, it was Kerry, who nodded with sober approval as Gingrich embraced the science of global warming, and a liberal audience, who clapped and shouted their appreciation for his ‘enlightened’ position. In 2011, it is his Republican debate opponents, who nod or laugh on cue, and the audience of Republican voters, who cheer him on, as he eviscerates a common enemy, be it the liberal moderators or President Obama. What has changed since 2008 is not the availability of opportunities to educate oneself about the science and political history of anthropogenic global warming. What has changed, to put it simply, is the American conservative movement. The difference, to put it even more simply, is the Tea Party. Three years ago, Washington insiders—of whom Gingrich is obviously one—saw the Republicans’ prospects as bleak. They were somewhat directionless, spineless, and, in the waning, unpopular moments of the Bush administration, powerless. They were looking at, and talking about, a generational climb back into majority status in the nation, and in Congress. In that climate, Gingrich’s prominent photo-ops with important liberal Democrats—Kerry, who had recently received 48% of the popular vote in a presidential election, and Pelosi, the most progressive House Speaker in history—along with his decision to align himself, albeit provisionally, with Al Gore, the popular hero of campus leftists and UN stooges—was a reasonable, if cynical, course for a famously controversial Republican seeking to redefine his image. After the 2010 midterm elections, it became clear to anyone with Gingrich’s experience and wiles that no one could hope to gain the Republican nomination without attracting support from some of the Tea Partiers, and forbearance from the rest. Hence the outright rejection of his own past declarations on global warming. Newt the “green conservative” is no more. The same is true on the individual mandate, his consultancy for Freddie Mac, and even his more recent trashing of Paul Ryan’s budget bill. In his November 16th interview with Levin, he defended the nature of his consulting work in this way: “[W]e said flatly from day one... I will not take any client who has a position that I don’t agree with, because my position was, if you want to come to me for advice, that’s fine, I’ll give you advice. But any position that I take in public is a position I personally believe.” That strong statement of principle would be a lot easier to make if one felt that one could just “believe” anything that happened to be convenient at any given moment, and then, if it should become inconvenient, suddenly “believe” the opposite.
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Daren Jonescu has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He currently teaches English language and philosophy at Changwon National University in South Korea.