written 9 July 2023
published 16 July 2023
Over the last few decades, several questions have arisen about the climate crisis. Is it real? When will it arrive? Is it man made? Can it be fixed? Will we fix it?
While some people believe Earth is flat, and the climate crisis is a hoax, the hottest day ever recorded on Earth was July 3rd, 2023, immediately broken on July 4th, 2023, and yet again on July 6th, 2023. This record is expected to be broken repeatedly. Since May, half of the US has faced extreme weather events. NOAA estimates infrastructure damages from climate extremes cost the US more than $850 billion in the last five years, with more impact unaccounted. Most of the US agrees the climate crisis is real, and already here.
Scientific consensus is the climate crisis is man-made. In the few hundred years since the beginning of the industrial revolution, atmospheric CO2 increased 10 times faster than in the geologic record. Additionally, isotopic analysis confirms fossil fuels are the source.
For weeks, I have been presenting information from "Climate Restoration", by Fiekowsky and Douglis, detailing how humanity can respond, and even reverse the climate threat to humanity. By completely decarbonization the global economy within the next 20 years, and removing 30 percent of the existing atmospheric carbon dioxide, returning to 300ppm by 2050, we would insure leaving a habitable planet to our children.
The technology to decarbonize the economy is already proven, already being manufactured, and beginning the rapid growth and price decrease that comes with increased mass production. The change is being driven by growing climate concerns around the world, the inflationary and political unpredictability of diminishing finite fossil fuels, and the economic advantages of the more energy efficient renewable technologies.
Increasing climate impact expenses include not only replacing damaged infrastructure, but also the accelerating insurance costs on all infrastructure. The financial world is beginning to see that a toasted planet is bad for business, and risks human extinction. While there is still a long way to go, some feel the decarbonization transformation is now inevitable.
We can also remove significant quantities of existing atmospheric carbon dioxide. With sufficient funding, known systems can be scaled up in the next few years to begin returning to levels proven to be habitable for humanity within two decades.
However, all this hinges on the last question, WILL we fix it? Many reasonable people feel the answer is NO. There is still too much well-funded institutional resistance. We know that ExxonMobil researchers affirmed the climate problem 45 years ago, but the company chose short-term profits, despite risking killing the economy, and began funding climate denial. ExxonMobil even funded think tanks to draft legislation cracking down on climate protests. Utility companies like Florida Power & Light use their political power to slow down clean energy solutions like rooftop solar panels. A recent article in the Ukiah Daily Journal detailed the resistance to divesting California public employee pension funds from fossil fuels, because "fossil fuel stocks make more money in the short term", without even considering the long-term costs of cooking the economy.
Think about that for a moment. Rather than work to make the planet habitable for our children, the goal is to maximize short term profits: killing the economy for profit. Bring it down to personal terms. Would you want to make more money knowing that somebody else would die young as a result? Would you want more money if it caused you, or your children, to die young? How would you feel if somebody else made more money by causing your kids to die young? How important is a habitable planet for your future? How about your kid's future?
Our economy has been coopted by the idea that making money is the ONLY important issue. Corporations are pressured to maximize short term profits for shareholders and executives, above all else. B corporations, a special form of corporation, had to be created to allow for consideration of worker safety, customer safety, and environmental safety, in the face of shareholders lawsuits.
This becomes especially ludicrous with the climate crisis, where there are no long-term economic winners, only losers. Everywhere.
Some resistance is ignorance, some is political partisanship, and some is grotesque greed. Each of us needs to decide: is a habitable planet worthwhile? Then make sure that our elected leaders know our choice, and elect new ones if necessary.
