Here are the points of the article that I would highlight:
How can it be that Chuck Norris, for crying out loud, is trumpeting his populist, pro-poor creds as a way of opposing international climate action? And why is the U.S. climate movement not widely seen as standing up for the American poor?
In response, Paddy McCully, the Executive Director of the Berkeley-based International Rivers (who’s entirely willing to go on the record) took the occasion to model a bit of snarky realism:
I think we can expect the ‘why are we sending money overseas when we aren’t helping the poor here’ rhetoric to be seriously ramped up by the tea-baggers. It’s perfect for them—xenophobic, nationalistic, populist, self-interested, self-contradictory (they don’t actually want money to be spent on the poor), anti-Obama, anti-Gore, anti-liberal elite, anti-science, anti-‘pouring money down foreign rat holes,’ anti-deficit increasing etc. etc. And now Norris has caught onto it presumably Glenn Beck won’t be far behind. And no amount of rational (or symbolic/emotional) argument will stop it.
In terms of broader public messaging in the U.S. I don’t think it’s even worth engaging on the international financing issue. Much better to stick to green jobs, energy security, technological competitiveness, natural disasters hurt the poor etc.
Which, when to think about it, is a pretty strong claim! Because if we don’t “engage” on the international financing issue, there’s basically zero chance that the international negotiations are going to pick up any real momentum anytime soon. Which, of course, means failure. Which is exactly what our friends on the lunatic right want.
