Friday, August 1, 2014

Warming Climate Kills Jobs From Texas To Milwaukee

Deniers who snicker at climate change and believe right-wing talk radio hosts who propagandize against years of global warming science should head down to the Menomonee Valley on Milwaukee’s south side at the end of the work day today and see what a fresh, devastating local impact of a warmed, changed climate looks like:

Six-hundred cattle-slaughtering jobs wiped out on only 48 hours notice at the Cargill operation there - - part of a Cargill pullback nationally because blazing temperatures for years in the Southwest have dramatically cut grazing acreage and cattle herds.
As has been amply catalogued and noted repeatedly in media worldwide - - but studiously ignored for years on the DNR's skimpiest, content-free climate change website - -  a changing climate is not just relevant to people living near retreating glaciers - - and thus their water supplies - - or to sea level communities from the South Pacific to Florida and Virginia, or to local economies from Australia to Arizona to Russia facing ruinous wildfires.
You could take this 2012 news story about drought that eventually closed one Texas town's biggest employer - - a 2000-worker Cargill facility 1,200 miles away from the Menomonee Valley, substitute Milwaukee and Wisconsin for the Texas references and the connections would be instantly clear.
We’re all in this together, and if you don't believe it, or still think these are faked or distant issues, there will be 600 people and their families on the South side of Milwaukee in a few hours to prove you wrong. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So sad about those families. Maybe folks have noticed how expensive food is becoming. Drought, brought on climate change, affects cattle and crops. Wisconsin water will be more valuable than oil.

Anonymous said...

An excellent point ! Food has skyrocketed...and combining the cost to ship (gas) with climate change an optimistic outlook for relief is hard to muster.

Ever wonder why, 11 years of rising gasoline and energy prices have not been addressed as a (near)national economic emergency? What the holdup?

Again, look no further than the Koch Bros, who through ALEC and climare denial studies, just killed initiatives in FL and OK for solar. They too, like WI, are both Koch owned legislatures.

This is why Germany has banned fracking and 50% of their energy comes from solar. They don't have two brothers in Germany, that kill everything that can help the country, and promote countless Libertarian, no rules to impede business without accountability.
Until they are defeated, we live under an economic Cold War: 1% control the country at the expense of the other 99%. Definition wise, this isn't Communism, but it's not far off in many respects.

It's exactly how the Russian people lived for years.