April 2020 | Rolling Stone | 13
for the massive Adani coal mine, which
will send millions of tons of coals to India,
the world’s third-most carbon-engorged
society. In the same time frame we learn
that Japan will build 22 new coal-burning
plants because they mismanaged one of
their nuclear reactors.
The visible facts in the United States
— Mississippi floods, California wildfires,
punishing hurricanes — have now led to a
73 percent majority of public opinion that
sees climate change as our most pressing
national issue. Republican voters seem to
be evenly split, but climate-change denial
is part of the party’s orthodoxy, which in-
cludes racially-based immigration policies,
voter suppression, health care and repro-
ductive-rights rollbacks, and regressive
taxation. The GOP may soon become the
party that destroyed the planet. They are
the zombies who ask no questions. They
are the walking dead who blindly follow a
monster without scruples or morals.
Putting the Democratic Party back in
power is essential, but just a start. We will
have the wind at our backs, but the real
powers are the puppet masters of the GOP
— the oil-and-gas interests that spent more
than $250 million on lobbying in 2018 and
2019 alone. Make no mistake about their
power to pay off Democrats as well as any-
body else. They control trillions of dollars.
They get hundreds of millions in tax breaks,
and billions are spent on military protection
of the oil reserves in the Middle East. Our
missiles surround the oil fields, our aircraft
carriers patrol the shipping lanes around
the world.
I don’t believe the political system alone
can face this down. In example after exam-
ple, we see what unrestrained, unregulated
financial strength has done to our society
and the world. The oil companies are
following the same playbook as other cor-
porate leaders — the drug companies, gun
doing something when they’re avoiding the
hard choices. The “plant a trillion trees”
pledge has a nice ring, but what we need is
to stop burning the rainforests of Indonesia
and Brazil. Now.
The notion that a multibillion-dollar
international bank is greening its offices
might be described as a move in the right
direction, but it doesn’t mean much. It has
to decisively abandon its support of the
carbon economy.
Greed is a disease. The unending
craving for more money, the addiction to
luxury and power, may destroy our civiliza-
tion. Climate changes are now colliding
with one another. Chaos caused by failedstates, fleeing populations seeking food,
the disruption of our supplies, and the
depletion of our treasury will ensue. We
already see it on every continent, and this
is just the easy stuff.
How do we cure the disease of greed?
Concern for the planet has been one
of ROLLING STONE’s principal areas of
coverage since 1970, when we launched our
first sister magazine, Earth Times. We have
published consistently important, tough
reporting ever since. In this special emer-
gency issue, three of our most experienced
writers on the environment are heard — Tim
Dickinson, Jeff Goodell, Bill McKibben — and
we join hands with three women, of three
generations, who are putting their lives on
the line for us: Greta Thunberg, Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, and Jane Fonda.
Hear our voices.
Will it be enough? Is World War III at the
door? But instead of a nuclear holocaust it’s
an economic clash over our endless con-
sumption of resources — food, forests, the
ocean. They were stolen and then resold to
us by the merchants of death. And in those
big shiny skyscrapers, where they keep all
their money, selling us on the fantasy of lim-
itless growth and endless gratification, they
were heard saying to one another, “What
does it matter? I.B.G.Y.B.G. — I’ll be gone,
you’ll be gone.”
We must start living our lives as if it is an
emergency. With our extraordinary comfort
and privilege, we may be too spoiled to
make the necessary sacrifices. But one day
we will have to answer for what we did to
protect our children, our grandchildren,
and the miracle of the diversity of nature
and species on this planet, when we still
had the time.
How much fight do we have left?JANN S. WENNER
NEW YORK, N.Y.manufacturers, sugar and fast-food giants
— who knowingly spread disease and death:
Lie, deny, and let them die.
Every year, the billionaires, global bank-
ers, transnational corporate giants, celeb-
rities, and “statesmen” gather in Davos,
Switzerland, to talk shop. This year, there
was a lot of what’s called “greenwashing,”
the easy steps and “strategic plans” that
make leaders appear as though they areIt is difficult to
conceptualize
carbon as the enemy.
How do you fight an
odorless, colorless,
invisible gas?
But the proofs
are unmistakable
and inexorable.