Being both interested in science and an outdoorsy person, I write about climate change quite a bit. Put succinctly, I am convinced that it is real, it is anthropogenic, and it is dangerous. With Vulgarmort expected to pull out of the Paris climate accord, I am pig-biting mad. Even most large U.S. corporations currently support the Paris accord.
Worldwide, the prices of renewable energy resources are lowering- in India, the price of solar generation is now undercutting the price of fossil-fuel generation. The prospect of lowering humanity's carbon footprint is becoming more and more likely with technological innovations. Meanwhile, Tweety Amin has made the renewal of the coal industry in the US a plank in his platform, even though that will never happen given the low price of natural gas (which, while better than coal, should be phased out as well).
Now is not the time to double down on propping up the fossil fuel industry- we need a 21st Century energy policy, not a 19th Century one... By pulling out of the Paris accord, the United States will cede political, technological, economic, and even moral power to other powers, be they the European Union or China. The only beneficiaries of such a policy change would be the fossil fuel oligarchs and their pet politicians.
In Switzerland, the first commercial atmospheric carbon capture plant just opened. There is an entire family of industries that can be developed to mitigate the climate change conundrum- it just requires political will and proper funding priorities to make it happen... and I don't think that the United States will be at the forefront of this revolution. The plane won't leave the ground, because we won't always have Paris:
The irony here is that even the oligarchs would benefit in the long-term by dropping their short-sightedness and reactionary politics.
UPDATE: Tengrain's take is that Trump wants to pull out of the Paris climate agreement in order to help Russia's petrochemical industry- I guess Moscow grifting Trump's Paris activism.
Trump doesn't view the agreement as a treaty in roughly the same sense that he doesn't understand that his office exists as a continuity of the preceding government. Our European allies apparently have done themselves hoarse trying to explain that one does not simply walk out of such an agreement as this, and if Trump surrounded himself with reasonable people, they might have to do themselves hoarse to explain that no, we seriously have way more jobs in wind and solar than coal anyhow, so it's best to stick with the existing documents and, incidentally, go where both the science and the market is taking us.
ReplyDeleteBut Trump is not surrounded by reasonable people. I note that 22 GOP senators have signed a stupid thing exhorting him to make his leave of the agreement as well. (GOP senators--we pretend they aren't as Tea Party and ideological as the House crew, but even the senior most leadership--McConnell, etc. often are--I recall them opposing VAWA, for example) While I don't consider that letter quite the gall of the 47 Ronin who opposed the Iran deal, I still don't think these asshats understand the big picture at all, or why this planet is everyone's business, or why the US needs to remain a practical, pragmatic, rational, and committed partner in "deals" (to use Trump's simplistic phraseology) of this sort. Because long term slow mutual benefit is surer than dining on slaughtered oie d'or.
Important, often overlooked fact about the Paris Climate Accords. They are completely voluntary TARGETS. There is no enforcement mechanism, and no intention of making the targets enforceable. Trump choosing to 'pull the US out of the agreement' is the most empty, utterly meaningless PR gesture he's made yet. I wouldn't get mad about it - it has exactly zero effect.
ReplyDeleteThe energy production industry will do what is economically viable over their time window, which is the lifespan of a power plant, about twenty years. There is NO WAY - NONE - where these people would invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a plant they know will be uncompetitive and subject to increasing regulations over time.
Trump can wave his weird orange dick around any way he wants, but the world is going to deal with climate change because it makes economic sense both in a profits sense and a sustainability sense. Alternative and renewable fuels are advancing while the whole concept of 'peak oil' disappeared with sharply reduced consumption.
Please. I beg of you, my fellow lefties. In the age of Trump, we have to pick our battles. Don't bother fighting him when his impact is zero. Don't get in his way when he's in the process of failing.
The only two places we need to care right now are on the tolerance front - immigration and white male supremacy - and inequality, which any standard republican tax/budget legislation is going to increase dramatically...
I still don't think these asshats understand the big picture at all, or why this planet is everyone's business, or why the US needs to remain a practical, pragmatic, rational, and committed partner in "deals" (to use Trump's simplistic phraseology) of this sort.
ReplyDeleteOne of the popular signs at the science march was 'There is no Planet B'.
Trump can wave his weird orange dick around any way he wants, but the world is going to deal with climate change because it makes economic sense both in a profits sense and a sustainability sense. Alternative and renewable fuels are advancing while the whole concept of 'peak oil' disappeared with sharply reduced consumption.
The real problem I see is that Trump and the GOP are engaged in a 'unilateral disarmament' when it comes to government support for innovation. The government should be backing a wholesale tech-and-economic revolution instead of trying to prop up moribund industries that really should die off.