The problem is nearly intractable, and at this point mitigating its devastation may be a matter of degree, even if every person and government on the planet made a total commitment to drastically reducing greenhouse emissions.
Yet, our government, in almost total defiance of the consensus of the international community, stands ready to pull out of the critically important Paris climate accords, signed by 195 countries, and ratified by 147. As one of the world's leading polluters, the United States must participate, and even take the lead in transitioning to low-impact, sustainable sources of energy. Our very survival may depend on it. Human-created mass extinction and deforestation are already threatening the entire biosphere. Political destabilization, war, and famine, exacerbated by drought, superstorms, and heat waves, have created millions of climate refugees. And this is only the beginning.
Many of our leaders deny that climate change is real. The absurdity of this statement is only matched by the malevolence of the denials. Our entire modern world is an outgrowth of science, from medical breakthroughs to advances in communications, and even to fracking and mining. The fact that high-ranking officials can look the public in the eye and question, undermine, and deny absolute scientific consensus is staggering, immoral, and at its base, powered by greed.
The Trump administration is staffed with a large cohort of executives and investors from polluting and extractive industries such as Rex Tillerson, former head of Exxon. These men (and they are all men) place short-sighted profit over any sort of communitarian value. The industries they represent are, for now, necessary evils upon which we all rely: gasoline, plastic, heating oil, and natural gas are products consumed by all of us, liberal, conservative, young, or old. Yet, these companies must transition their business models or step aside immediately to make way for solar, wind, and other forms of energy not yet developed or even imagined if we have any hope for a peaceful and prosperous future.
We all must take every effort to reduce our fossil fuel footprint. This means actions such as recycling, of course, but also decisions with larger implications: far-off suburbs are cheaper, but come with a high cost to the environment if commuting is involved. Brand new McMansions are lovely, but so are lofts in refurbished factories and warehouses located in efficient city centers. Even decisions about food can have have a profound impact on the health of the planet: factory meat farming, for example, uses immense amounts of fresh water and creates staggering amounts of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis and 21 of his colleagues sent a letter to President Trump urging him to pull out of the Paris accords. These men--again, they are all men!--justify breaking with the rest of the world because the treaty will undermine Trump's effort to roll back Obama-era restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions. Why do these politicians take this stance, a stance at odds with basic science and at odds with basic reason and compassion? Because they are funded by the same polluting industries. The Koch brothers, through its ALEC and other groups, has, in conjunction with similar lobbies, bought its influence over the decision makers in whose hands we have entrusted our very survival.
The spurious and short-sighted argument they use pits jobs against the environment. Yes, as the world shifts away from oil and gas towards clean energy technologies, many companies will experience turmoil and even bankruptcy. This will cause economic upheaval, including job losses. Yet, the burgeoning field of sustainable energy, if properly unleashed and encouraged by governments, could be the next miracle of economic development, one our country, with its unparalleled institutions of higher learning and research, is well poised to capitalize on.
We need to foster the next generation of scientists, programmers, and designers, who will help solve the energy dilemma and provide sensible and humane ways for us to weather the coming changes. We need to invest in schooling at all levels, in training programs, and we need our government to create a regulatory environment that will strongly incentivize development of green technologies in everything from architecture to energy. With so many of our politicians stuck in the defiant intransigence of denial, how do we get things moving?
The time has come for mass protest. We need student movements, we need people living near toxic sites such as Duke Energy's coal ash disasters to speak out about environmental justice. We need to ring the phones off the hook of elected officials who have the temerity and hubris to fiddle while Rome burns. We need to write letters to the editor and Facebook posts. We need to march in rallies, but also in the streets. At the same time we need to change. We need to make wise choices about how we eat, where we live, how we travel, where we vacation, how we bank, and what goods and services we purchase. We need to educate ourselves and others. This American lifestyle is unsustainable. We live in ways only possible at the expense of most of the rest of the world's population now, and most certainly at the expense of the future. In ten, twenty, fifty years, how will you answer the young when they ask, "what did you do?"
Yet, our government, in almost total defiance of the consensus of the international community, stands ready to pull out of the critically important Paris climate accords, signed by 195 countries, and ratified by 147. As one of the world's leading polluters, the United States must participate, and even take the lead in transitioning to low-impact, sustainable sources of energy. Our very survival may depend on it. Human-created mass extinction and deforestation are already threatening the entire biosphere. Political destabilization, war, and famine, exacerbated by drought, superstorms, and heat waves, have created millions of climate refugees. And this is only the beginning.
Many of our leaders deny that climate change is real. The absurdity of this statement is only matched by the malevolence of the denials. Our entire modern world is an outgrowth of science, from medical breakthroughs to advances in communications, and even to fracking and mining. The fact that high-ranking officials can look the public in the eye and question, undermine, and deny absolute scientific consensus is staggering, immoral, and at its base, powered by greed.
The Trump administration is staffed with a large cohort of executives and investors from polluting and extractive industries such as Rex Tillerson, former head of Exxon. These men (and they are all men) place short-sighted profit over any sort of communitarian value. The industries they represent are, for now, necessary evils upon which we all rely: gasoline, plastic, heating oil, and natural gas are products consumed by all of us, liberal, conservative, young, or old. Yet, these companies must transition their business models or step aside immediately to make way for solar, wind, and other forms of energy not yet developed or even imagined if we have any hope for a peaceful and prosperous future.
We all must take every effort to reduce our fossil fuel footprint. This means actions such as recycling, of course, but also decisions with larger implications: far-off suburbs are cheaper, but come with a high cost to the environment if commuting is involved. Brand new McMansions are lovely, but so are lofts in refurbished factories and warehouses located in efficient city centers. Even decisions about food can have have a profound impact on the health of the planet: factory meat farming, for example, uses immense amounts of fresh water and creates staggering amounts of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis and 21 of his colleagues sent a letter to President Trump urging him to pull out of the Paris accords. These men--again, they are all men!--justify breaking with the rest of the world because the treaty will undermine Trump's effort to roll back Obama-era restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions. Why do these politicians take this stance, a stance at odds with basic science and at odds with basic reason and compassion? Because they are funded by the same polluting industries. The Koch brothers, through its ALEC and other groups, has, in conjunction with similar lobbies, bought its influence over the decision makers in whose hands we have entrusted our very survival.
The spurious and short-sighted argument they use pits jobs against the environment. Yes, as the world shifts away from oil and gas towards clean energy technologies, many companies will experience turmoil and even bankruptcy. This will cause economic upheaval, including job losses. Yet, the burgeoning field of sustainable energy, if properly unleashed and encouraged by governments, could be the next miracle of economic development, one our country, with its unparalleled institutions of higher learning and research, is well poised to capitalize on.
We need to foster the next generation of scientists, programmers, and designers, who will help solve the energy dilemma and provide sensible and humane ways for us to weather the coming changes. We need to invest in schooling at all levels, in training programs, and we need our government to create a regulatory environment that will strongly incentivize development of green technologies in everything from architecture to energy. With so many of our politicians stuck in the defiant intransigence of denial, how do we get things moving?
The time has come for mass protest. We need student movements, we need people living near toxic sites such as Duke Energy's coal ash disasters to speak out about environmental justice. We need to ring the phones off the hook of elected officials who have the temerity and hubris to fiddle while Rome burns. We need to write letters to the editor and Facebook posts. We need to march in rallies, but also in the streets. At the same time we need to change. We need to make wise choices about how we eat, where we live, how we travel, where we vacation, how we bank, and what goods and services we purchase. We need to educate ourselves and others. This American lifestyle is unsustainable. We live in ways only possible at the expense of most of the rest of the world's population now, and most certainly at the expense of the future. In ten, twenty, fifty years, how will you answer the young when they ask, "what did you do?"
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