The Misogyny That Fuels Global Warming

But not us.

We won't drill.....

We won't drill for the oil in the moonscape known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) because of – the caribou.

Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal columnist, 6/12/08

It won't come as any surprise that the above complaint was registered inside a pro-oil opinion piece with the uber-masculine title "Drill! Drill! Drill!" Real men, you see, don't care about caribou. Let's get serious, America.

Note that to Henninger the wilderness is a "moonscape." Translation? Worthless but for the oil beneath. The wilderness is worthless, as wilderness. So inside the universe described by that sentence, the moon becomes as dispensable as the caribou. Who needs moonlight, the tides or the menstrual cycle anyway?

But the dash in the comment is truly amazing, for even it is made to assist the heartless message. The dash creates a pause and turns "the caribou" -- into a punchline. Effective op-ed writing, I suppose, but how nauseating. Behind that little dash and Henninger's sarcasm is where you'll find the cruel philosophy of unrepentant extraction and combustion that has caused and is perpetuating global warming.

Henninger's commentary was published last Thursday in lock step with a Republican messaging campaign to scare citizens with the myth that China is drilling for oil off the coast of Florida. So why shouldn't we drill drill drill, too? But here's the truth:

A Congressional Research Service report from February of this year, however, disproves that myth, saying there is no offshore drilling partnership between Cuba and China, and any drilling has been focused on land in Cuba, not off Florida's beaches.

"By perpetuating this myth, the Republicans and their friends in Big Oil are acting as the modern day masters of deception," said Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. "It's not the Chinese who are looking to drill off Florida's beaches, it's the Republicans and Big Oil."

With their big drills.

It's true that Hillary was demonstrably the sometime victim of sexist media coverage. But that is merely a miniscule reflection of the misogyny Mother Earth endures.

Let's get serious.

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