Commentary

If anybody told me that I would one day be quoting Jane Fonda in my blog, I would have said they were ready for the looney bin, but her latest rant was just too good to pass up.

Fonda, now 85, made news this week when she blamed the climate crisis on racism during an appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”

“Well, you know, you can take anything – sexism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, whatever, the war,” she said. “And if you really get into it, and study it and learn about it and the history of it and everything’s connected.  There’d be no climate crisis if it wasn’t for racism.”

“There’d be no climate crisis if it wasn’t for racism.”  Oh, my, the media loved it.  “Hanoi Jane” was back in the news and racism is one of their favorite topics along with extremism.  They obviously see it as an extension of the Biden administration’s constant reminder that we are suffering from systemic racism.

However, the reason I’m quoting Fonda is not because of what she said, but to relate how the media’s lazy journalists missed the real story.

Oh, they got her quote right. “Where would they put the sh**?  Where would they put the poison and the pollution?  They’re not gonna put it in Bel Air.  They’ve got to find some place where poor people or people of color are living.  Put it there.  They can’t fight back.  And that’s why a big part of the climate movement now has to do with climate justice.”

But that’s where their reporting stopped.

After researching the coverage given to Fonda, only one news source, Dow Jones Market Watch, explained what she was trying to say.  In just two paragraphs, Rachel Koning Beals, put all of the other writers and the lightweight TV host Kelly Clarkson to shame.

While Beals wrote about the history of how convenient zoning regulations resulted in landfills and emissions-spewing industries being generally located in underserved communities, it was her knowledge of what John Kerry, the United Nations, and the global elites of the World Economic Forum are pushing in their fantasy of altering climate change.

While the Biden administration included billions of dollars to combat climate change in its so-called Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. has agreed to pay for climate change damage inflicted by poorer nations.

At the same time, we go to those small countries, rich in minerals and raw materials, needed to go electric in our country.  And no matter where the mining takes place, the materials go to China for processing. 

If one accepts Fonda’s linking of the climate crisis to racism, some might consider Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, our first native American cabinet member, racist as she seemingly has no problem with dirtying the air of poor countries while seeking those rare minerals.  Because of environmental concerns, just one percent of the global supply of lithium is mined in the U.S.

While the Biden administration wants electric cars to replace combustion engine cars in an effort to cut emissions, they don’t tell you about the minerals required to produce those cars, especially the batteries. 

I understand an electric car requires four times the copper than that of a combustion-driven car.  A single wind turbine requires 4.7 tons of copper, and combined with the increased demand in solar, we are noting that copper supplies are not keeping up with demands.  Some experts are questioning whether enough materials can be mined and processed to meet the demand.

Again, it isn’t for the lack of resources in the U.S. that we are dependent on Chile, Mexico and Canada for copper.  Mining those minerals is done under highly pollutive and environmentally devasting conditions. 

While Fonda makes a point in connecting the climate crisis to racism, no amount of Biden administration rhetoric addressing racial justice will convince me that those concerns will stand in the way of its full speed ahead agenda for electric vehicles, wind farms and solar landscapes.

Meanwhile, the installation of wind farms off the east coast is being blamed for the deaths of 18 whales since December 1.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.