It hit 109 degrees in Nashville over the weekend, but don't worry; ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson tells us we can keep extracting and burning fossil fuels to our heart's content, because we crafty humans can deal with anything nature throws at us:
"We have spent our entire existence adapting. We'll adapt. It's an engineering problem and there will be an engineering solution."
Maybe he'd like to explain this engineering solution to the 346 families in Colorado Springs whose homes were reduced to ashes by the most destructive wildfire in state history. Perhaps he can tell the millions of people from Ohio to Virginia how we can adapt to storm systems like the one that leveled trees and left millions of people without power while the mercury broke the 100-degree mark. He could also tell Washington Nationals all-star pitcher Stephen Strasburg how to last beyond the third inning when the game-time temperature is 106 degrees (115 on the field).
Like the tobacco industry before it, which hired phony scientists to dispute the carcinogenic effects of cigarette smoking, the fossil fuel industry has waged a decades-long PR campaign to prevent our government from enacting policies to mitigate climate change. Their arguments keep shifting as the weight of scientific evidence blows their talking points out of the water. At first, they said there was no global warming. Then, well, maybe there is global warming, but we don't know if it's naturally-occurring or man-made. Unable to hide the smoking gun of greenhouse gas emissions any longer, they've now rolled out their latest rationale to protect their profit margins:
"We can adapt."
Yes, we can adapt, but only if we contain global warming to levels that are indeed manageable, and that means we have to stop burning fossil fuels. From the mitigation perspective -- as opposed to the adaptation perspective -- Tillerson is right: It is an engineering problem. We need to quickly change the way we power our lives and get from one place to another.
On that front, there was very encouraging news last week from the National Renewable Energy Lab's new study, which said that we can get 80 percent of our electricity from clean energy by 2050 using existing technology.
Making that happen, however, requires economic incentive, like putting a predictable price on carbon that accounts for all the hidden costs -- health, security, environmental -- inherent in fossil fuels. A politically-viable solution would be a straight tax on carbon-based fuels that returns the revenue to the public.
So, what's stopping our nation from doing that?
People like Rex Tillerson, who can say absurd things -- don't worry; we can adapt -- because of the power and money they wield. Members of Congress, petrified over the unlimited cash the petroleum industry can throw into advertising campaigns to unseat troublesome legislators, are all-too willing to listen to such inanities, nod their heads and sit on their hands.
For anyone who cares about the future we're handing to our unsuspecting grandkids, this situation can be thoroughly depressing.
But there is hope.
Yes, it's true that the coal and oil industries have an army of paid lobbyists in Washington to look after their interests, but the Earth and future generations have a far more powerful advocate: YOU.
Imagine this: Hundreds of constituents show up at congressional offices, sit down across a table from their representatives, take out pictures of their children and say, "This is my daughter. I'm here talking to you today because I don't want the world to be a horrible mess when she grows up and starts thinking about having kids of her own. I know you don't want that, either, so let's talk about how we can preserve a livable world for ALL children."
That's one of the things that will happen later this month when volunteers from throughout the U.S. and Canada gather in Washington for the Citizens Climate Lobby 2012 International Conference (July 22-24). More importantly, what will happen is that ordinary citizens will discover the power they have to make a difference. And as they walk to congressional office buildings and see the visitors waiting in line to tour the Capitol, they will realize that they are no longer tourists. They will see that, as Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweikert once said, "We are not just passengers on Spaceship Earth; we are the crew."
Rex Tillerson tells us we can adapt, but what that adaptation really entails is reclaiming our democracy and wresting control from the corporate interests that have a stranglehold on our government. If you think it's time to be piloting Spaceship Earth, then join us in Washington this month.
Follow Steve Valk on Twitter: www.twitter.com/citizensclimate
Wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste are the future.
Nuclear gave us Fukishima.
Oil gave us the BP disaster in the Gulf.
Coal gave us the Massey Coal mine disaster.
Oil, coal and nuclear keep rising in price and environmental damage. Wind and solar keep getting cheaper.
Hmmm...consider the source.
Another source:
The Stern Report
http://apo.org.au/research/stern-review-economics-climate-change
Their conclusion: not to mitigate would bring economic disaster. To quote,” According to one measure, the benefits over time of actions to shift the world onto a low-carbon path could be in the order of $2.5 trillion each year."
(Sir Nicholas Stern is well qualified. He is the Head of the Government Economic Service and Adviser to the Government on the economics of climate change and development.
Another example: The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences concluded last year some adaptation is necessary (although, I must say, the New Orleans levies never got “adapted” before Katrina arrived - though the Army Corps expected, sooner or later, it was coming).
But what is essential is mitigation. From the NAS summary,
“RECOMMENDATION . […] it is the committee’s judgment that the most effective strategy is to begin ramping down emissions as soon as possible.
(we do this by) increasing price on CO2 emissions, with a price trajectory sufficient to drive major investments in energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies. "
"Coal and Oil Have Their Lobbyists, but the Earth Has YOU"
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=4390
Watch the link!
In 1980 Europe, North America and Asia used about the same amount of coal today Asia use 5 times as much as either North America or Europe!
You can't even cover that with per capita!
What you need is a billion or so Chinese on your side we're small potatoes in comparison!
According to Reuters Chinese renewable energy company Sky Solar and China Development Bank have joined forces with the Chilean industrial group Sigdo Koppers for the 300 megawatt (MW) solar energy project.
http://www.earthtechling.com/2012/07/china-spends-big-bucks-on-solar-energy-investment-in-chile/
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/the_greenhouse_gas_that_nobody_knew/2085/
Oh Yea, That will save the planet!
The largest source of smog in L.A. is a toss up between the Long Beach & Los Angeles Port Authority and the Airports!
save the U.S. economy 5 trillion dollars !
http://archive.org/details/AmoryLovins-ReinventingFire-Ted2012
But, in this case, the evidence is that they can be cheaper than staying the course.
Taxing CO2 emissions is a grand goal - and it should be done; however, our first goal should be to seriously impact the fossil fuel industry via federal legislation, such as ending tax payer subsidies. As a tax payer, I bitterly object my hard-earned money being spent to cause further environmental degradation - air, land, and water; all citizens should feel the same and send one correspondence after another to congressional members and to President Obama. Congress must move swiftly to infuse the renewable energy industry with ample subsidies for the manufacture of renewable energy and encourage research and development. A country that has eradicated polio, walked on the moon, and developed the Internet, can certainly bring innovation to an endless source of renewable energies and in a relatively short matter of
Here in North Carolina, the legislation just overturn Governor Purdues veto on gas fracking.
Also, they omitted and wording on rising seas in a coastal study (not good for Public relations).
We rationalize our actions and will continue to do so to the peril of our young. Sorry for my imput.
Yet, throwing in the towel is not the answer. We have to look at our grim reality, and try to make the best of it. If we're on the sinking Titanic, we must get the maximum number of people to safety. If the crew are stupid or corrupt, there are better or worse ways to react to them. We have to put a little group of well-intentioned folks together and develop a mitigation program that the crew will have no ability or interest to prevent.
There couldn't possibly be anything less structured and systematic than the progressive response to climate and environmental collapse. Fight this, fight that. They seek no systemic thread that ties the issues together. Millions of organizations vie with one another. Useful organizations and organizational structures are overlooked. It's madness. If we're aware of the holocaust to come, we owe it to ourselves to work even harder to stave off whatever suffering we can. W have to form a coherent program, however small, that addresses the issues logically.
Well, humans can adapt better than many other species. Increased temperatures are good for the pine bark beetles, but they have devastated millions of acres of pine trees.
Polar bears are threatened. Coral reefs are dying. Rain forests will be altered in ways that many of their inhabitants cannot survive. Our path leads to a mass extinction. I believe that is immoral.
Regards,
T