Weapons Of Mass Destruction or Peter Crying Wolf

John Kerry delivered a speech in Indonesia calling global warming the new weapon of mass destruction and those who question global warming as members of a society of misguided fools who believe the world is still flat, physically that is. Just like exposing our population to hour upon hour of big screen, small screen or video screen violence and death, thus totally desensitizing them to real death and gore, Kerry's throwing out the "WMD" word does the same thing. The scientific jury in my mind is completely out and even if there were any consensus that fossil fuel consumption was the main reason for any future rise of the Earth's temperature and the sea levels, it would be a brave scientist to predict the problem would be solved by huge reductions in consumption and a callous one if consumption reductions had to occur also in the developing countries which need more energy not less.
     What frightens me and to some extent prompted this poem is not only Kerry's speech but also the  latest announcement by Obama of another $1 billion we do not have to spend to address the effects of climate change and thereby rally his base of environmentalists and  the realization of how better to throttle U.S. fossil fuel consumption than to block Keystone. In any event, before Kerry proclaims again the dangers of his imagined new WMD, hope he rereads the story and realizes that the villagers stopped running and the wolf ate all the sheep. 

The New WMD

If you want attention, raise the specter of weapons of mass destruction to be used

If you were not in the limelight, all of the mainstream are now enthused

Weapons of mass destruction today consist of the unholy trinity of three

Nukes, chemical, or biologic--the mere hint from a battlefield we all would flee

This is serious stuff and the mere threat of use by a non MAD capable state

Could unleash the dogs of nuclear war till not even a shattered bone to sate

To bandy about weapons of mass destruction when none in reality exist

No matter for once the threat or hint ala Iraq is made, war is hard to resist

For Kerry to seek to add to this list of true horror of winters and millions dead

One can only in amazement question what rational thoughts were forming in his head?

We know there is a problem when we see a mushroom cloud

Millions seared in a blast or covered in radioactive ashy shroud

Or thousands misted with nerve gas and then twitching, and falling frozen to the ground

Or killing viral diseases that spread almost as fast as the speed of sound

You do not have to wait centuries or decades to death by WMDs to quickly embrace

A large part around this tiny speck of the entire human race

But climate change, global warming, a CO₂ increase, today there is no credible link

There’s no explosion, no rush of wind and heat, no flash of light blinding faster than one can blink

Kerry’s accusation of flat world devotees digging in their heels

Ignores the fact that on this the science is in no way a done deal

War on Women, War on the Middle Class, War on the Poor, War on Blacks from the Blues

War on Coal, War on Oil, War on the Rich, War on Crony Capital added by Reds into this bubbling toxic stew

Throw the “War” word out into the PR fray at drop of hat is like Peter calling a wolf attacking his sheep

Minimize, trivialize, push any discussion away, put us desensitized and to real dangers asleep

Through the fog of “war” however a real disturbing and frightening thought

Kerry’s WMD rant may signal another salvo of Obama’s desire to Keystone block

And with it a white flag on the “Wars against the Poor and Middle Class”

As the jobs and energy created with Keystone oil are lost in the trash.

Leaving millions of Americans without jobs and barely able to dance in the street

Hoping their sacrifice a hundred or so years from now meant a global warming defeat.

© February 19, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet