Murdoch, Clinton pose as saviors of the planet

Does it worry you that the role of savior of the planet is now being preempted by the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Bill Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger?

The planet is in grave danger—and so are many living things—from dramatic climate change caused by global warming. The most recent findings by scientists show a much quicker rise in global temperatures than was predicted just a few years ago.

Glaciers all over the world, from Antarctica to the Andes to Greenland to the Alps, are melting.

Paradoxically, the huge amount of fresh water pouring into the North Atlantic as a result may be pushing the Gulf Stream away from the British Isles and could actually be bringing more severe winters to parts of northern Europe.

The polar ice caps are melting, too. A recent report by a NASA team, published in Geophysical Research Letters, says that the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean shrank by a phenomenal 14 percent—the area of Texas—in just one year, from 2004 to 2005.

Then there’s the permafrost, which for 40,000 years has stabilized the ground in the far north. Starting a few feet below the surface of the ground, the frost never melted, even on hot summer days. That is changing, according to a study reported in the Sept. 7 issue of Nature.

In vast areas of Russia, Canada and Alaska, the once permanently frozen land is melting during the short—but lengthening—summers. Roads that once crossed the frozen ground safely are collapsing into the bog. Buildings, dams and pipelines are in danger of sinking and breaking up.

But even more dangerous for the whole world, vast amounts of methane gas once trapped in this frozen jello are starting to be released. Methane is a greenhouse gas that contains carbon; it is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping the Earth’s heat. Scientists are now finding methane bubbles rising out of the thawed swamps.

Researchers estimate that more than 4 million tons of methane are now being released each year as Siberia warms. But if the planet continues to heat up, some 90 percent of the 500 billion tons of carbon locked up in the permafrost of Siberia could rise up into the atmosphere. A similar process is happening in the tundra areas of Canada and Alaska. (New Scientist, Sept. 30)

Jim Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, says that the Earth is already as warm as at any time in the last 10,000 years, and is within 1 degree Centigrade of being its hottest for a million years.

That one degree could be the “tipping point” that scientists are warning of, when the processes first unleashed by human activity are accelerated by feedback mechanisms. These mechanisms include more of the sun’s heat being absorbed by the newly open oceans, as well as the destruction of northern forests by insects that used to be held in abeyance by cold winters—already a growing problem in Canada and Russia. Trees help moderate the greenhouse effect by taking carbon out of the air.

No one can predict exactly what will happen, or if other counter-mechanisms may kick in. But much of what was considered speculation just a few years ago—like the increase in atmospheric methane—is now observable fact.

So where do Murdoch, Schwarzenneger and Clinton come in?

They are all, in different ways, pushing schemes to supposedly help counteract global warming. These schemes are market friendly; that is, they are based on the premise that technologies can be developed that will be both “green” and profitable for their owners.

Putting profits first

They are for using the power and money of the government in this endeavor, but in ways that will subsidize private industry, which supposedly will then come up with the best ways to solve the problem.

Murdoch, as most readers already know, is a right-wing, anti-worker media mogul who heads News Corp. It in turn owns the Fox Broadcasting network, 20th Century-Fox, the New York Post, The Weekly Standard, MySpace, part of DirecTV, more than 110 Australian newspapers, the book publisher HarperCollins, and five British newspapers, including the most sensational and chauvinist tabloids. It also controls satellite-television providers in Britain, Italy and most of Asia.

Murdoch was a strong supporter of both Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. His news media have played an often decisive role in promoting political figures whose policies have vastly enhanced the wealth and power of the already super-rich.

Recently, Murdoch’s company donated half a million dollars to Bill Clinton’s Climate Initiative, announced this summer. This undoubtedly shocked those on the far right who love Murdoch and for years have echoed the energy companies’ mantra that global warming was a hoax and that even the mildest effort to get an international agreement limiting greenhouse gas emissions, like the Kyoto accords (which the U.S. has never signed), was a Third World conspiracy.

However, Murdoch is a very political member of the capitalist ruling class, and he is positioning himself right now to shape future policies on what the government should do about global warming, especially if the Democrats come out ahead in the next two general elections.

Another figure offering support to Clinton’s initiative is Gen. Wesley Clark. He appeared on a panel recently with Sen. Hillary Clinton and the former president of Costa Rica, José María Figueres. This military leader, who led the U.S.-NATO war that broke up Yugoslavia, explained that global warming is a “national security” issue, warning that huge natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina not only can do terrible damage but can also affect social stability.

Also getting into the mix on the Republican side is Schwarzenegger. The California governor just met with New York’s billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and the two announced they were teaming up to promote clean energy.

Suspicious? You should be. All these figures speak for a ruling class that is directly responsible for the type of economic development that has polluted the planet while making them wildly wealthy. “Corporate America” has no qualms about making money from wars of conquest—the most concentrated assault on the environment. They all thought it was great to invade and destroy Iraq for its oil—until the Iraqi people proved capable of putting up a good fight.

Now they want to be in the business of “green” technology. And they want the government to put up a lot of the money that will then go into their pockets.

Don’t expect this to fix anything. Remember how privatizing the schools and the prisons was going to make everything work better? Now these foxes are setting themselves up to stand guard over our threatened global chicken coop.