Thom Hartmann: We're all going to die and no-one's talking about it [View all]

[thomhartmann]

The Human Race may very well die out - and no one is talking about it. The fact that we've now gone through three Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates - and not once has global climate change been brought up - should be, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, an "Alarm bell in the night" for all of us. Especially because this last September was the hottest September ever recorded in the civilized history of the human race. Not only that - this last September produced the smallest amount of Arctic ice ever recorded in the civilized history of the human race.

Our planet is rapidly changing - scientists across the world are freaking out - farmers are getting hysterical and, in many countries, committing suicide in mass numbers - and yet our two Presidential candidates are fighting about who's going to pump more carbon pollution into the atmosphere: That would have been the perfect time for Candy Crowley to chime in an say - "Hey, guys what about the climate change crisis that's being worsened by all of this drilling?" But she didn't - and then Romney bashed the President over not approving the Keystone XL pipeline...Actually the President DID approve the Keystone pipeline - at least a large portion of it - and he'll likely approve the rest if he wins a second term.

Right now - Members of the Tar Sands Blockade are camped out in East Texas, engaging in civil disobedience to stop Transcanada’s bulldozers from clearing trees to make room for that very same Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline that Romney said the President blocked IS being built - and TransCanada - a foreign corporation - will make huge profits by having it run toxic tar-sands-oil across our nation - leaving us with danger of spills, aquafer contamination, and the asthma- and cancer-inducing pollution from refining that stuff. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges called the Keystone pipeline, “part of the final phase of extreme exploitation by the corporate state.”

And climate scientists James Hansen warned that completion of the pipeline would be, “game over for the climate.” And yet - in the debate - we have Mitt Romney criticizing the President for not building it...while the President is building it. Which raises the very reasonable question - "Are these guys really that out of touch with what's going on with the planet?" Tragically, the answer is, "No - they're just scared as hell of big oil - and the power big oil has this election thanks to the Supreme Court."

Since Citizens United trashed any limits on corporate spending this election - big oil has moved to spend huge amounts of money promoting their industry and taking down any politicians who don't tow the line. As the New York Times reports - coal and oil interest groups have spent more than $150 million on nearly 140 different ads that have run tens of thousands of times this election year promoting their interests and criticizing the President's clean energy agenda. Big Coal and Big Oil have spent four times as much money this election as have clean-energy advocates. So Barack Obama and Mitt Romney know that if they say one bad word about coal or oil - then they're going to be hit with an avalanche of big oil spending.

Heck - President Obama already is getting hit, even though he's increased domestic oil production each year he's been in office. And bringing up climate change? Forget about it! That's political suicide in the post-Citizens United era since the Supreme Court has said that corporations can use unlimited funds to punish politicians. So that's why the elephant in the room - climate change - is being ignored in these debates. The Supreme Court has created a political climate in the United States where increasingly we're seeing an unmistakably changing planet that will render farm lands in the American midwest sterile - submerge coastal cities under water - and turn forests into wildfire traps.

Thanks to its Citizens United ruling - five right-wing corporate-sponsored justices on the Supreme Court are responsible for the destruction of our planet. And the only way we can reach a tipping point of elected lawmakers to talk about climate change and actually pass legislation to do something about it - is to end the insanity of that Citizens United ruling that said that corporations are people and money is speech. The fact is that corporations are not people - and money is property, not speech. And to stop the Supreme Court, we need to amend our Constitution to simply and plainly say so. Go to Move to Amend.org to get involved.

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings