OPINION: Climate Denial, Data Centers and the Quest for Truth
We cannot debate climate, or the impact of data centers on climate, when we deny the problem of climate change in the first place.
By Rev. Richard Cizik
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EVANGELICALS FOR DEMOCRACY
A recent Washington Post headline captured the Trump Administration’s disdain for truth: “Trump’s answer to numbers he doesn’t like: Change them or throw them away.”
I shared this article with colleagues across the country because I was concerned about the Trump Administration’s ruthless suppression of “inconvenient data” in areas ranging from labor statistics, healthcare, criminal justice and climate change.
My sharing of this article was made possible by huge, energy-intensive data centers that are beginning to dominate once-idyllic, rural landscapes, especially in Virginia, which has become the world’s “data center capital” powering today’s online, AI-driven society.
These industrial facilities create soaring electricity costs and increased consumptive water use, pitting neighbors against tech giants and sometimes against other neighbors. These power-hungry data centers contribute to the existential threat of climate change.
But the Trump Administration denies the very threat of climate change, suppressing and ignoring the facts. This denialism poses an existential threat to the world.
The U.S. Department of Energy recently released a report attacking common-sense climate policies, written by five scientists known for their denial of climate change. I believe this report’s conclusions are deliberately designed to be dishonest by denying the threat of global warming that imperils our future health and economic well-being.
This report came the same day EPA announced a devastating proposal to overturn a 2009 legal ruling, enabling the government to roll back or repeal 31 key rules advancing clean air, clean water and climate change mitigation almost overnight.
We cannot debate climate, or the impact of data centers on climate, when we deny the problem of climate change in the first place!
As a clergyman, I am alarmed at denialism and dishonesty cloaked in flowery language that debases the foundations of our free society. That is why I am working hard to address this problem at the highest levels of government and industry — so that we can begin to fix it.
Look at the news: as climate threats accelerate, there are more devastating fires, floods, heat waves, hurricanes and other extreme weather events. Climate instability is bringing more foodborne diseases; respiratory illnesses, cancers and other serious health problems; burned out or flooded communities; higher insurance costs; billions spent on disaster relief and thousands of preventable deaths.
Despite, or perhaps because of, these dangers, a few special interests will ride the gold-plated denialism train all the way to the bank. These special interests include the administration and its allies in the oil industry, to whom Trump promised a windfall in exchange for $1 billion in industry contributions to his campaign.
For most of us, climate denialism is dire news and innocent people will suffer from the administration’s dangerous proposal to institutionalize dishonesty.
In Virginia, as the sole clergy member of Virginia’s Climate Change Commission empaneled by Gov. Tim Kaine, I was pleased that our commonwealth has a history of proactive, truth-based approaches to addressing climate change, despite the current governor’s attempts to reverse important climate policies.
For me, fighting climate change is more than a passion, it is a religious calling.
As Vice-President of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in the early 2000s, I was fired for calling for climate change action. I reeled from being fired but persisted against dishonesty and denialism. I continue to speak about the need to combat climate change because the cost of denialism is much too high.
Now, “We the people” can still take action to preserve our environment. By federal statute, the Trump Administration must seek and review public comments on its anti-climate agenda.
This gives Americans the chance to fight denialism by getting their comments on this critical matter into the official record.
Please speak out and submit comments to EPA by the deadline of September 15, and let your elected officials know of your deep concern about dishonest climate denialism.
We can begin to address climate change by using clean, efficient and sustainable sources of energy to power our economy, our data centers and to protect our children’s future.
This is a fight worth winning – for all of us.
Rev. Richard Cizik is Executive Director of Evangelicals for Democracy, which brings together people of faith—Republicans, Democrats and Independents of all walks of life — who believe that as Americans, we are stronger and more resilient together than when we are divided.
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Trump and his lovers care little about public opinion as their usurpation of our government clearly shows.
And today, from justthenews.com:
"Media touted paper that climate change will make world poorer, but kept silent as flaws are revealed".
More critique of the "climate crisis" propaganda. Climate change denial? No. Change is what climate is, by definition. We need to get away from the breathless, existential, "We all gonna die!" propaganda and get back to actual scientific discussion, where research is subjected to critique and the validity of that research is constantly questioned by the 'scientific method'. We don't need enviro-zealots, preaching doom, while they fly around in private jets and live a modern life, doing exactly what they are preaching against. Nor do we need those who will claim that we don't need to be better stewards of the environment and do what we can to clean up the mistakes of the past.