Last week’s news contained far-flung events that showed how global warming is increasingly impacting the world’s politics.
In Washington, the Trump Administration’s plans to bail out the coal (and nuclear) industries took a hit with a new analysis showing that the scheme could cost Americans as much as $34 billion each year.
President Trump and Energy Secretary Rick Perry have been running a public relations campaign in support of coal in public appearances. Yet in an effort to deny the public information on how their plan would work, the Department of Energy has revealed little about its specific plans to support coal and nuclear in the name of national security.
The only previous report on cost was issued by allies of the coal industry which estimated that the cost of the plan would be roughly $4 billion annually.
Last week, on behalf of non-coal energy producers, a consulting firm (the Brattle Group) analyzed several scenarios the Administration might employ to support nuclear and coal-fired power plants. Its analysis estimated that the price tag will be much higher, instead claiming that the cost to Americans could be as high as $20 billion to $35 billion per year.
Of course any plan to bail out the coal industry has serious consequences, both financial and environmental. The Trump Administration’s approach makes no sense on either count. It will not only cost the nation billions to prop up dying 20th Century dirty technologies, but its approach also ignores the overwhelming evidence of the dangerous consequences of burning fossil fuels – evidence that is currently visible across the globe.
In southern Iraq, for example, riots have broken out during an unprecedented heat wave that has had temperatures hovering around 120 degrees Fahrenheit. And while riots in that part of the world are the result of deep cultural, religious, and governmental problems (some of which have existed for hundreds of years), soaring temperatures coupled with lack of electricity for cooling and water shortages, combine to ignite simmering societal divisions.
Close to home, intense heat waves have had a deadly impact on people in Vermont and Quebec, which endured record-breaking heat earlier this month.
The failures to support science-based solutions is deeply frustrating to people all across the globe, but the reckless and dangerous policies of the Trump Administration – which is not only failing to act, but doing all it can to make things worse – is raising the temperature of politics in America.
Last week, children took to the streets to protest the national failure to respond aggressively to the human catastrophe caused by the burning of fossil fuels. In events organized around the theme of “Zero Hour,” young people rallied against inaction and called for dramatic changes in environmental policies, based on science – in diametric opposition to the resource-plundering approach of the Trump team.
The organizers of the events use the term “Zero Hour” because there is no time left to address the rapidly increasing current damage and future dangers caused by climate change – among them heat waves, drought, rising sea levels, acidifying oceans, pollution, and violence.
The events focused on demands to curb, and eventually end, the use of fossil fuels to generate power. Specifically, the events highlighted the need to ban all new coal, oil and gas infrastructure projects and set a goal of ending the use of fossil fuels by the year 2040.
While it is no doubt inspiring to see young people rising up to call for action to protect the planet they will inherit, it should give no real comfort to the rest of us. Rallies inspire and motivate, but they alone do not change policy. To do that, movements have to be built.
And there is no time to waste: in 30 years, when today’s children become the decision-makers, it will be too late. Today’s adults will be making the decisions about whether to continue to invest in oil, coal and gas projects, or instead to dramatically ramp up investments in solar, wind, efficiency, and geothermal power projects.
Sadly, the adults in Washington are doing everything wrong. They have built a movement on the falsehoods advanced by the fossil fuel industries and their front men, they have lied to the public about the known dangers of climate change, and they are advancing policies that will accelerate the carnage resulting from global warming.
While the children have pointed the way, adults need to act now. To advocate for sane energy policies and to vote out of office those who refuse to act. Zero hour means no time to left. We all must act, and act now.
Blair Horner is executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
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