{"id":11229,"date":"2016-03-29T06:51:29","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T12:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=11229"},"modified":"2016-03-29T06:51:59","modified_gmt":"2016-03-29T12:51:59","slug":"opinion-war-on-coal-how-about-give-peace-a-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/03\/opinion-war-on-coal-how-about-give-peace-a-chance\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: ‘War on coal’? How about ‘Give peace a chance’"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., came to Baker, where I live, to talk about, as he put it, a \u201cwar on coal.\u201d His visit was part of an energy tour leading up to an Energy Expo<\/a> in Billings, which he organized on behalf of the fossil fuel industries.<\/p>\n

As the days have passed, and I have thought about what was implicit in what he said, I find myself increasingly disturbed by how he and other politicians, like Ryan Zinke, Tim Fox, Greg Gianforte and Donald Trump are framing environmentalists.<\/p>\n

\"Wade\"<\/a>

Wade Sikorski<\/p><\/div>\n

Global warming is an established fact. Climate scientists are just short of unanimously agreeing that it is not only happening, but is human-caused, and will become catastrophic if business as usual continues. Environmentalists, like myself, see ourselves as working for the noblest of ends, trying to leave today\u2019s children a healthy world to live in.<\/p>\n

But, ignoring reality, politicians like Daines are rebranding our efforts as a \u201cwar on coal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The more I think about it, the more I\u2019m offended. The future is at risk, mostly because of coal, and the politicians who represent me are fighting a \u201cwar\u201d to save coal, as if coal were a victim and the reality of global warming could be ignored without consequence.<\/p>\n

The \u201cwar on coal\u201d isn\u2019t a real war, obviously. It\u2019s a metaphor, a strategy to draft recruits into an effort to discredit environmentalists. As such, the \u201cwar on coal\u201d resembles other metaphorical wars we have been drafted into, like the \u201cwar on drugs,\u201d the \u201cwar on cancer,\u201d and the \u201cwar on terror.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of these \u201cwars\u201d turned out to be just as expensive as any real war, and none of them have ended in anything resembling a victory. Like real wars, they all caused much suffering and wasted many lives, mostly because they were false to reality. Global warming will win the \u201cwar on coal\u201d because it is real, and the \u201cwar on coal\u201d isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Metaphors help us interpret the world. By likening something to something else, we understand it better. Metaphors can enrich our thoughts, deepen our reflection, revealing what was concealed, but they can also lock our thoughts up in prisons, where they dictate what we think. By renaming the effort to stop global warming as a \u201cwar on coal,\u201d Daines is trying to control our thoughts, concealing what climate scientists have long ago proven about global warming.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>A \u201cwar on coal\u201d is a tempting metaphor for Daines to push his agenda because it stirs up anger, nurtures resentment and conceals reality. But I doubt he has thought all the implications through. Daines and his friends seem to have forgotten that in war things get violent, and people are killed.<\/p>\n

And so, here is my worry: If Daines, Zinke, Fox, Gianforte and Trump keep pushing their \u201cwar,\u201d eventually their followers are going to take it literally, and they are going to do what people in war usual do\u2014assault, maim, and kill.<\/p>\n

Starting a \u201cwar\u201d works well for Daines. He feeds people\u2019s anger because he wants to be their hero, their champion–the guy who saves them from Obama, the EPA and environmentalists. Because \u201cwar\u201d works so well for him, my question is: will he slam on the brakes before his followers get too angry, stopping them before they become violent?<\/p>\n

Listening to Daines in Baker, I feel that he has lost control of his metaphor. There are no brakes on the car he\u2019s driving. We could easily end up, as in all the other metaphorical wars we have been drafted into fighting, in a place none of us want to be. Maybe, instead of starting yet another \u201cwar,\u201d Daines should give peace a chance.<\/p>\n

Wade Sikorski lives on the family ranch in southeastern Montana. He has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Massachusetts and is the author of several books<\/a>, including Sacrificial Rituals<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., came to Baker, where I live, to talk about, as he put it, a \u201cwar on coal.\u201d His visit was part of an energy tour leading up to an Energy Expo in Billings, which he organized on behalf of the fossil fuel industries. As the days have passed, and I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":11231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3864],"tags":[4090,2853,4091,335,628,528,1782],"class_list":["post-11229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-war-on-coal","tag-donald-trump","tag-energy-expo","tag-greg-gianforte","tag-ryan-zinke","tag-steve-daines","tag-tim-fox","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}