Reading the slow conversion of the Miami Herald OPED board to the consequences of climate change in South Florida reminded me of the Three Stooges routine, "Slowly I turned, step by step, Niagara Falls!"
It requires a certain age to summon memories of the original Three Stooges.
The premise of this skit is that the repetition of certain words -- Niagara Falls -- triggers a memory that ends up with Moe knocking down Curlie. Inadvertently, Curlie repeats the trigger words, causing the beating all over again.
So why did this remind me of the Miami Herald and climate change?
Even before we started this blog in 2007, the unwillingness of Herald top executives to grasp the import of climate change for readers turned my attention again and again, like Niagara Falls, to the squandered potential of the Herald to be a force for positive change.
Instead, overtly and sometimes through omission, the Herald was the cheerleader for the Great Destroyers.
Apparently, the struggle within the Herald is resolving in favor of intractable evidence of climate change: Alton Road flooding on ordinary high tides, for example.
That said, we still wait for the Herald to level its attention on climate-change-denier US Senator Marco Rubio who still refuses to meet with scientists. "Niagara Falls, step by step, slowly I turn ..."
And so far as solutions including building sea walls and putting sand on beaches ("short term solutions")? Good luck with that. Does the Herald have the institutional courage to confront FPL on its reckless scheme for new nuclear at sea level? Niagara Falls ...
It requires a certain age to summon memories of the original Three Stooges.
The premise of this skit is that the repetition of certain words -- Niagara Falls -- triggers a memory that ends up with Moe knocking down Curlie. Inadvertently, Curlie repeats the trigger words, causing the beating all over again.
So why did this remind me of the Miami Herald and climate change?
Even before we started this blog in 2007, the unwillingness of Herald top executives to grasp the import of climate change for readers turned my attention again and again, like Niagara Falls, to the squandered potential of the Herald to be a force for positive change.
Instead, overtly and sometimes through omission, the Herald was the cheerleader for the Great Destroyers.
Apparently, the struggle within the Herald is resolving in favor of intractable evidence of climate change: Alton Road flooding on ordinary high tides, for example.
That said, we still wait for the Herald to level its attention on climate-change-denier US Senator Marco Rubio who still refuses to meet with scientists. "Niagara Falls, step by step, slowly I turn ..."
And so far as solutions including building sea walls and putting sand on beaches ("short term solutions")? Good luck with that. Does the Herald have the institutional courage to confront FPL on its reckless scheme for new nuclear at sea level? Niagara Falls ...
6 comments:
How you related the MLC routine to the Herald on climate change made me laugh. I just watched it again.
It's "Niagara," not "Niagra."
Really, that is all your comment is: a spelling correction. I fixed it, anything else?
Wow! Thanks .. These guys always scared me when I was small but the phrase "Slowly I turned" was part of the family vocabulary used when my sisters and I would chase each other in tickle fights. I wish it were funny that it has taken so long for the Herald to slowly turn and inch by inch recognize what is under their noses.
Miami Herald and NPR (Joe Cooper and his FPL infomercials) sucking up to FPL and new nukes really is a reflection of the amazing influence FPL has garnered over the years. They are a Media Relations/Lobbying company with a power generation business as a subsidiary.
While the industry is facing serious decline because of distributed renewable energy, FPL redoubled its lobbying efforts to 1-lock in a central command electrical generation system for the next 60 years with new nukes and 2-even better, force the public to pay for it in an unprecedented manner with Early Cost Recovery. No rational basis for this other than 'we want it'.
FPL is a model of crony capitalism and influence peddling, made possible by the GOP.
BTW, take a look at the constant turn over of stock purchases, options exercised and sales at executives at FPL. http://insidertrading.org/ These clowns are constantly turning over the stock as a way to compensate themselves handsomely and doing it in this manner so the company can get a tax break in doing so. I bet they spend 20+ hours a month, 1/2 a work week, planning/charting/strategizing/obtaining/exercising these options to optimize their value.
FPL deserves to be inducted into the 'Crony Capitalism Hall of Fame' next to the Sugar Barrons. (I think the Hall is maintained on either at George W. Bush's or Dick Cheney's farm).
I don't know where else to send this information. You can take it out of the comments and post it on the blog, I just thought people should know.
Turkey Point Siting Hearings
July 17, 23 & 25, 2013
Miami area, Florida
---
The Power Plant Siting hearings for Florida Power and Light will include public comment sessions where non-intervening parties can state their concerns about the two proposed Turkey Point reactors. Some of the siting issues being questioned by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Sierra Club, Audubon Society, and other local activists include: the transmission corridors within Everglades National Park and along US1, the storing of more radioactive waste on site when the lowland area is not suited for nuclear waste storage, water permitting issues, and what new plans need to be considered and implemented given the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. Find talking points here.
Don't forget to mark these events on you calendar!
Hearing in Homestead, FL - Wednesday, July 17th
Hearing at Miami Airport Convention Center - Tuesday, July 23rd
Hearing at Miami Airport Convention Center - Thursday, July 25th
Siting Hearing in Homestead, FL
When: July 17th, 2013 at 7:00 pm
Where: Keys Gate Golf and Country Club Banquet Hall
2300 Palm Drive
Homestead, FL 33055
Contact: Mandy Hancock, SACE, mandy@cleanenergy.org
Siting Hearing at Miami Airport Convention Center
When: July 23rd, 2013 at 7:00 pm
Where: Miami Airport Convention Center, Room MACC1
711 NW 72nd Avenue
Miami, FL 33126
Contact: Mandy Hancock, SACE, mandy@cleanenergy.org
Siting Hearing at Miami Airport Convention Center
When: July 25th, 2013 at 6:30 pm
Where: Miami Airport Convention Center, Room MACC1
711 NW 72nd Avenue
Miami, FL 33126
Contact: Mandy Hancock, SACE, mandy@cleanenergy.org
Post a Comment