The generation before me (not my parents – they had me in middle age) fought the fight of their lives on the battlefields of Germany and the South Pacific. Our generation seems unwilling to save the climate for our children or our country. Apparently, we can’t figure out how to cut the production of greenhouse gases that are warming the climate. We can produce electric vehicles but resist letting market prices steer us away from gasolene even though we could use the tax system to help people who couldn’t deal with higher prices – which would still leaving them the option to use cheaper fuels. Apparently losing our parents and uncles in World War II to save us from the totalitarianism of the Axis powers – Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy and Hirohito’s Japan) was worth it – but a few pennies in the gas pump are too much to save a livable world for our children. Inflation in gas prices can’t be tolerated no matter the good it does. Shouldn’t we feel ashamed?
The continued building of pipelines makes it easier to expand the use of greenhouse gases. Hypocritical politicians promise to cut down on greenhouse gases but support pipelines anyway. Trump’s support of the gasolene industry has been open and deliberate. Actually, I prefer the hypocrites because it shows they’re aware of the problem even while they try to negotiate the politics generated by the oil and gas companies.
Bill McKibben, in his newsletter on climate change, The Crucial Years, suggests “There is one chance left for partial redemption—the Make Polluters Pay climate superfund bill which was still sitting on [Gov. Hochul’s] desk waiting for a signature” when I last checked. McKibben has been on these airwaves talking with Joe Donahue and I’d add his newsletter to the sources I’ve previously recommended on the environment, plus Living on Earth and Earth Wise, both on WAMC.
Stopping new pipelines, limiting oil production and imposing a carbon tax are the most powerful ways to save the environment, but McKibben highlights another – we can mitigate damage to existing communities before extreme weather and climate events do their damage. In the face of hurricane Milton, Bill McKibben predicted: “Instead of either letting the market brutally drive us away from the coasts, or empowering the government to manage our retreat in a sensible way … we’ll choose the worst of both worlds.” In other words, we’ll find ways to keep insurance available for building on the coasts. And we’ll block government from coordinating risk-reduction activities like taking the burden off individuals to “harden” their homes against worsening extreme weather events. The point is to reduce the risks before storms hit.
There are solutions to every aspect of global warming and climate change. The problem isn’t technical – it’s whether we have the will as a people to deal with it. Wake up people. Global warming will do much more damage than war. And it can be solved with much less personal tragedy. It will involve widespread sharing of the costs. But it won’t result in movies of personal heroism with armed soldiers facing down minefields and machine guns. Is the problem that we need TV and movie moments? Let’s all be heroes, help those in need but let the gas price rise.
Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.
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