Politicizing the Environmental Debate, 2000–2017 263
So we are left with a stark choice: allow cli-
mate disruption to change everything about our
world, or change pretty much everything about
our economy to avoid that fate. But we need to
be very clear: because of our decades of collec-
tive denial, no gradual, incremental options are
now available to us. Gentle tweaks to the status
quo stopped being a climate option when we
supersized the American Dream in the 1990s,
and then proceeded to take it global.Source: Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism
vs. the Climate (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014),
pp. 19-21.Fortunately, it is eminently possible to
transform our economy so that it is less
resource-intensive, and to do it in ways that are
equitable, with the most vulnerable protected
and the most responsible bearing the bulk of
the burden. Low-carbon sectors of our econo-
mies can be encouraged to expand and create
jobs, while high-carbon sectors are encouraged
to contract. The problem, however, is that this
scale of economic planning and management
is entirely outside the boundaries of our reign-
ing ideology. The only kind of contraction our
current system can manage is a brutal crash, in
which the most vulnerable will suffer most of all.
Document 177: Gil Gullickson on Agriculture and Climate Change (2014)
While farmers are concerned about rainfall, drought, and heatwaves and have begun to adopt new,
environmentally friendly farming techniques such as no-till agriculture to conserve soil and water, many are
politically very conservative. Consequently, the magazine Successful Farming, read by more than a million
farmers and ranchers, avoided using the divisive term “climate change” until 2014, when the magazine’s crop
technology editor,” Gil Gullickson decided it was time come to terms with reality. This article produced a good
bit of negative feedback from readers caught up in the dialectics of contentious politics.Climate change isn’t a liberal
conspiracy, it’s a reality
I know what you’re thinking: Climate change
is just some figment of Al Gore’s imagination
adopted by liberal tree huggers who want to
tank the U.S. economy.
Well, maybe. After all, 2014 weather was a
growing season dream in many areas. Still, think
back over some rough weather you’ve endured
in recent years and ask yourself these questions:
• Are springs getting wetter? They sure are in the
Corn Belt. Jerry Hatfield, director of the USDA-
ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and
the Environment at Ames, Iowa, examined
central Iowa spring precipitation over two time
frames. Workable field days in April through
mid-May decreased 3.5 days in 1995 to 2010,
compared to the same time frame from 1979 to
1994.
“Fewer workable field days puts tremendous
stress on producers,” he says.• Are droughts increasing in severity? They
sure are in the southern Great Plains and U.S.
Southwest. For example, Oklahoma historically
receives more precipitation in the spring and fall.
More arid conditions normally prevail in winter
and summer. This pattern helps germinate win-
ter wheat in the fall and launch it after it breaks
dormancy in early spring.No more. “We are losing some reliability of our
early-season precipitation that drives wheat-
based cropping,” says Jean Steiner, director of
the USDA-ARS Grazinglands Research Labora-
tory in El Reno, Oklahoma. Late-season freezes
have also decimated drought-stressed plants in
recent years. “Whether you think this is climate
change or just bad weather, you still have to