Rick Santorum, Please Shut Up

I was going to let him prattle on and talk himself out of the Republican nomination for presidency without investing my thoughts and written words. He’s so ridiculously drastic in his right-wing ideology that I thought he would never be taken seriously. Why waste my breath pointing out the obvious when there are so many other stimulating things to write about that don’t make me question which century I am living in. However, I find myself no longer able to keep my mouth shut.

I was able to restrain myself through abortion talks and contraception woes – it was difficult, and I definitely ranted about it to my loved ones and may have written a poem about it, but I didn’t put anything out to the public besides shared links on Facebook voicing other people’s thoughts. I thought, hey, he’s kinda crazy but at least he doesn’t politicize his crazy, he’s very blunt and forthcoming about it and actually admonishes the over politicization of every process that exists and every statement that comes out of Mitt Romney’s mouth.

But today, I have no more excuses. Today, I have had enough.

Rick Santorum. I think you are a closed-minded religious fundamentalist trapped in a paradigm designed by classical physicists that no longer defines the nature of our reality while continually demonstrating you are ill possessed of any rational regard for science, progress in society, women’s rights, religious freedom and separation of church and state.

I have never wanted to punch somebody so badly in my life. Not a wimpy slap for saying silly things, but a real ‘fingers tightened into a fist propelled by the force of anger’ punch. He’s asking for it, loudly, through a microphone.

Allow me to introduce you to the source of my fury. When asked about what he would do in regards to the Environmental Protection Agency at the Gulf Coast Energy Summit in Biloxi, Mississippi if he were to become President, Santorum promised to repeal every environmental regulation that exists on businesses. He claims that the Obama Administration has a “radical environmental agenda”. Really? Radical? Really? Have we gotten off oil? Has mandatory recycling become the law? Have we stopped factory farming animals? Have we changed our agricultural processes? Do we now ration our daily water usage? Have we taken all the corrupt money invested in oil and plugged it into electric car technology, wind energy, solar energy and desalinization plants? Ohhhhhh, we haven’t? THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

He’s talking about the bump up in ‘high cost’ regulations on the emissions from power plants. He’s talking about the “non-scientific” and “outrageous” claim that the Obama Administration has made regarding the toxic levels of CO2 in our atmosphere. See, I went to a public high school that was allowed to teach me science, and I went on to those “liberal machines” we call colleges, and continued to take science, and along the way I somehow learned about the composition of gases in our atmosphere(s). You know, that big invisible gaseous cloud that makes it possible for us to breathe, live as close as we do to the sun (ozone layer), grow things, you know … EXIST!

It is the delicate composition of these gases that has allowed for the formation of life on this planet. The rapid and abundant emissions of CO2 due to our continued reliance on unsustainable fossil fuel energy that accelerated during the Industrial Revolution has contributed to the overabundance of greenhouse gases involved in the climate-regulating process called the greenhouse effect. It’s not just cars running on oil emitting CO2 that is a threat, it’s also farming practices and land-use change increasing the output of methane, factory farming animals, factories producing industrial and unnatural gases, population growth and sadly, deforestation.

Plant life absorbs CO2, but we continue to eliminate massive forests to make Ethan Allen dressers, so we have even less plants to do the absorbing while emissions have increased with the industrialization of China and India, and the growing population wanting vehicles that emit CO2. Ultimately, more greenhouse gases mean more infrared radiation trapped and held, which increases the temperature of the Earth's surface and the air in the lower atmosphere. Oh, and CO2 stays in the atmosphere for a long time, so even with cuts to emissions we have already managed to raise the surface temperature of the planet, and it will continue to happen even if we were to suddenly become the perfect conscientious earthlings. We will be suffering the repercussions of our industrial and agricultural activities for many generations to come.

Pretty much, we’re screwed. Massive climate change is inevitable, and has already started happening. It’s inevitable anyway because we are in the warming cycle of an ice age, but our activity as a species on this living planet has increased this warming rate which will throw off the equilibrium of the planet’s gaseous atmosphere, which will result in radical (there’s your word Rick) climate changes as the planet tries to establish some kind of new equilibrium, and that may be a balance of gases that won’t be conducive to human life. It has happened before. *insert intimidating T-Rex roar*

The exaggerated effect of all of this is global warming. That doesn't mean that a blizzard disproves global warming – all of you idiots out there who think you are so clever when you say this, it makes me want to scream at the depth of your ignorance. Extreme weather is the result of global warming, bigger hurricanes, more tornadoes, floods, droughts, mass extinction, and the change in ocean acidity, depth, and flow of current streams.

So Rick, just because you believe that man has dominion over the Earth, it doesn't mean it’s true. When you say things in response to the Endangered Species Act such as this: "There are so many places that we put critters above people. It’s a radical ideology that says we are here to serve the Earth instead of man having dominion over the Earth to serve him and to be a good steward of that Earth.” It makes me want to punch you.

You obviously have no understanding of ecology and the interconnected systems of life on Earth. Human Beings do not have dominion over the Earth. If anything, we are dependent upon the Earth for its continued functioning of natural processes so that we can keep being able to exist here. These are the processes that we are messing with due to our stubborn dependence on fossil fuels; these are the processes that will naturally begin to shift toward a new equilibrium that may not sustain human life, because the Earth is its own living organism. The Earth was around way before you and your microphone and your misinformed opinions. And the Earth will be around long after we kill ourselves off because we refuse to acknowledge the interconnected systems of life that sustain us. So, in summation: Rick Santorum, please shut up.