This morning, CNN ran a piece featuring Bruce Nilles, Director of Sierra Club's Move Beyond Coal Campaign, discussing the fabulous new Reality Coalition (of which Sierra Club is also a part) anti-"clean coal" ad. The new ad, directed by the Academy Award-winning Coen Brothers, has generated a lot of buzz.
But the most interesting part of the segment is an interview with Joe Lucas, head of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (nee Americans for Balanced Energy Choices), a coal industry front group that has spent tens of millions of dollars on deceptive advertising and political activities, as well as more than $10.5 million to lobby Congress directly on behalf of dirty coal and against legislation to fight global warming and promote clean, renewable electricity .
While the group's deceptive advertising claims that the unproven technology of so-called "clean coal" can be part of the solution to global warming, Lucas stunningly refuses to admit in the CNN interview whether or not the burning of coal even contributes to global warming.
NARRATOR: Still, the industry refuses to say its plants contribute to global warming.
INTERVIEWER: Can you just answer that yes or no--If you believe that burning coal causes global warming?
JOE LUCAS (shaking head no): I don't know. I am not a scientist.
Watch it (approximately 2:00 minutes in):
How can an industry that refuses to even acknowledge that it's part of the problem be part of the solution?
Here's the full Coen Brothers ad featured in the CNN piece:
...you almost, almost admitted that the industry you shill for is the leading contributor to climate change. Almost. It was a great effort, and I really appreciate it. Really.
While you're here, Joe, I'm wondering if you can tell me what "advance clean coal technologies" you are working on to stop the unequivocally dirty and horrendously devastating impacts of the mountaintop removal coal mining your industry practices? I assume since you are a proponent of "clean" coal, you are in support of the Clean Water Protection Act introduced in Congress yesterday, which would reinstate sane environmental protections that, you know, prevent the dumping of entire mountains on top of streams and valleys. I assume you'll join me in championing the Clean Water Protection Act to help clean up the coal industry...
And of course, when you say scientists are "less certain" that "human-made emissions will contribute to climate change" what you really mean is that they are more than 90% certain (rather than 100% certain I guess)....
When the interview aired, CNN played only part of a quote in which I said "I'm not a scientist" when asked whether or not emissions from coal plants contributed to climate change.
Here's what you didn't hear: I pointed out that the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has a whole list of things about which there is great certainty, other things about which there is some certainty, and still other things about which there is less certainty. We do know that there has been an increases in greenhouse gas emissions and that some warming has taken place.
According to the IPCC, the exact extent that human-made emissions will contribute to climate change is less certain. However, the remaining uncertainties do not provide a reason to not take action.
Especially when you take into consideration the advances that we are making with advanced clean coal technologies to capture and store CO2 from power plants.
By focusing on technology to ensure a cost-effective means of meeting new emissions standards, we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote energy independence, create jobs and keep energy costs affordable for American businesses and families.
Rather than using fossilized solar energy, humans can meet their energy needs entirely from contemporary solar energy--if we try.
To the extent that the coal lobby attempts to prevent us from really attempting the conversion, I do not and will not trust anything you say.
Hey, after you figure out the clean coal thing, I'd like a unicorn to pull my car for me. Could you arrange that too? (h/t Van Jones)
Blah blah blah
There is conclusive evidence that putting an endless stream of waste products, no matter what they are, into the environment, WILL eventually cause problems.
There is conclusive evidence that the ocean's pH is dropping, that coral reefs are dying, that one in four mammal species is endangered or threatened, that we are losing topsoil above the replacement rate... I could go on.
There is conclusive evidence that relying on fossil fuels is harmful to our society and to our ecosystems.
Why do you love fossil fuels so much?
Or perhaps it's just that you're in denial, and don't want to admit to yourself that something might be wrong, that perhaps trying something different would be a good idea...
Keep stuffing your fingers into your ears and singing "LA LA LA." After all, that was such a successful strategy for the folks who laughed off the warnings about the financial meltdown.
Wake Up and Freak OUt
This is an excellent short video about the feedback loops in climate
change that very few people understand or are talking about, but may
well do us in if we don't do something NOW. Please take a moment to
watch it, and zing this link around to all your friends.
http://vimeo.com/1709110?pg=embed&sec=1709110
At the home website, there are links to the text of the film, along with links to peer-reviewed scientific literature supporting the film's conclusions. Deniers, check it out and then come back. Tell us what you think.
(As long as it's not "Well I think that LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU"... lol)
http://wakeupfreakout.org/index.html
They already are, lobbying for hefty carbon allowances in a cap and trade scheme, which will profit them in various ways. The traders will get everything they want to, the believers will cry "but a carbon tax would have worked better!"
Asking for a fair opinion from a polluter about pollution is as much a waste of time as getting a Wall STreet Finance forum on cap and trade to express a fair opinion about anthropogenic global warming.