By Michael Marquet
Living in Washington DC one tends to get a little historical. DC, history and green blogging together leads one to wonder what the Founding Fathers would have said about climate change.
Let’s examine 3 test cases: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Benjamin Franklin was the 18th century version of a blogger. He founded a newspaper which reported on the goings-on in Philadelphia and throughout the colonies. He also wrote amusing and entertaining stories that touched on important issues of the time. The stories were written from the perspective of others, usually women.
After his newspaper became successful Benjamin Franklin started a courier service, the first of its kind in the 13 colonies. It was like the Amazon of its day moving packets and information throughout the colonies at the blistering speed of a galloping horse.
With the courier service up and running, Ben Franklin decided to turn his mind to science. His most famous experiment was, of course, the one with the kite, the key and the lightning. His lighning rod quickly caught on in the colonies and Europe and became, even when he was a diplomat in France, what Franklin was most well-known for.
We see a man of science; a man of skeptical enquiry. Also a pragmatic man, a man who preferred to play the role of compromiser, arbiter, judge. He played the cool-headed foil to John Adam’s hot-tempered calls for separation from Britain. He also cooled some of Thomas Jefferson’s more radical statements in the Declaration of Independence.
What would he have said about climate change? Probably that while prognostications of doom and gloom can be counter-productive, the science is still clear. Climate change is happening and it will affect us sooner or later. He probably would have satirized climate change deniers in one of his many humorous ethics tales told from the perspective of a woman. Perhaps he’d chose Silence Dogood.
Thomas Jefferson was always rather progressive in his beliefs. His first draft of the Declaration of Independence included a call to abolish slavery, which he viewed as an abomination despite, of course, owning slaves himself. It was Benjamin Franklin who tempered him in that instance.
Later Thomas Jefferson became enamored of the chimeric success of the French Revolution. Upon his return to America he pressed for closer relations to and more emulation of Republican France. He eventually grew appalled by the violence of the Terror and, as we all know, was responsible for our purchase of the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon.
Thomas Jefferson portrayed himself as a champion of the small farmer, the working poor of his day. His vision was of an agricultural nation of small self-sufficient freeholders. He would have been very comfortable in today’s progressive circles.
He was also a man of science. His journals are full of observations on the weather; temperature, precipitation, humidity and barometric pressure. He also designed and built his home at Monticello which must have required at least a passing knowledge of math and geometry.
Despite his liberalism, Thomas Jefferson was no softie. When Berber pirates threatened American commerce in the Mediterranean he responded by sending the Navy and burning the pirate ports.
Thomas Jefferson would have scoffed at the climate deniers and their corporate backers since he felt he championed the little man against the industrialist. He would have pushed for a self-sufficient and sustainable way of life. He would chafe at the way we are beholden to the vagaries of Middle East politics and the resultant shifts in the price of oil. He would have chosen the hard road and worked to wean this country off of Mid-East oil.
Now we come to George Washington. Our most revered founding father was a soldier, a surveyor, a farmer, and an entrepreneur. He was also a figure that united and brought out the best in us. When he faced defeat at Long Island, at Trenton, at Monmouth he repeatedly risked his life by riding out, between the British and American lines, and rallying the troops.
As president he held the nation together by putting down the Whiskey Rebellion. In addition, he ensured our future prosperity by ushering our first trade treaty with Britain through Congress against strong public disapproval.
George Washington would have eaten climate deniers for breakfast, even with his wooden teeth. He was a hardened general and military commander who did what he knew was right for the country. He would have seen climate change as the threat that it is. In spite of potentially negative public opinion, he would have pushed a climate deal through Congress that would ensure our prosperity for generations to come.
And that is what the founding fathers would have done about climate deniers.
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