Are Environmental Protectors “Alarmists?”
My business deals in expediting the phase-out of fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy, electric transportation, and energy efficiency solutions. Moreover, I believe there are both financial and moral reasons for wanting this transition to happen.
Financially, we see that oil, coal and natural gas are going away, just like silver mining left Colorado 125 years ago, and DVD/game/video rental left us in the last decade; it’s an industry with an expiration date, and that’s becoming increasingly clear. It’s why ExxonMobil is traded today at 32.7% of what it was just a few years ago. That’s a lot of evaporated capital, and it’s a signal this sector has no future.
Morally, it’s widely believed that the impact of 8 billion people on this planet is causing environmental ruin in the form of climate change, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, and widespread disease to humans and other life forms.
This doesn’t mean that people like me (and the tens of thousands of scientists who understand the science behind what’s happening) are not constantly hounded, often ridiculed as “alarmists.” In particular, scorn comes with the territory. Cowboys have to deal with rattlesnakes, truck drivers with traffic cops, mailmen with dogs, and environmentalists with the mockery and disdain of people who have no understanding of or respect for science.
In fact, ridiculing people who believe that the planet is losing its capacity to support life is a piece of cake. After all, the planet’s been here 4.5 billion years, and it’s been supporting life for almost that entire time. Are we to believe that something is going on here and now that’s in any way singular? Is it possible that, after all this time, we’ve arrived at a tipping point, beyond which it will impossible for humankind to preserve a decent environment (like virtually all our scientists are telling us)?
The video below is very well produced. It features John Stossel, an incredibly polished television news journalist, known for his libertarian political philosophy and free market views on economics. Stossel goes ably at his task, i.e., vigorously taunting and jeering the entire environmental movement.
I note with amusement that it spotlights the fanatical right-wing think tank Heartland Institute, which exists at the forefront of denying manmade climate change. It has deep ties to the Koch brothers and a network of other right-wing, climate-denying groups.
The people at Heartland appear to be amazed that actual climate scientists refuse to go in there to debate the organization’s “experts.” What they are trying pretend they don’t understand is that there is a reason this won’t happen at this venue with these people; it’s the same reason that is won’t happen at a QAnon convention, or the headquarters of InfoWars. These are all places that lack even the most basic respect for truth and fact. The billboard shown here is a product of the Heartland Institute; that’s Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber at the left. This is indicative of the level of their capacity to think, and to communicate to others in a reasoned and civil way.
So, are we doomed? Of course not. The best case is that humankind somehow comes together and deals with the present-day danger before it results in catastrophe. The worst that happens here actually is the collapse of our most important ecosystems, massive displacement of human populations due to sea-level rise and desertification, unprecedented levels of disease caused by infection-carrying insects, potable water shortages, etc., but, in the absence of nuclear annihilation, our civilization will continue on and rebuild itself–until the next major challenge, that is.
And what will the environmentalists face then? That’s right, a new round of ridicule.
I’m curious your take on the what seems like an increase in anti climate change events like you show here.
This one has probably a very small influence vs for example the terrible planet of the humans by Moore.
Of which I saw and heard numerous interviews with Gibb and Moore.
Of all that I heard, not a single one pushed back with any fact checking. The easiest and one that would completely nullify the movie is that solar has an energy payback in 2-4 years, not never as is stated in the mocumentary.
So again, how is it that climate change deniers are increasing vs decreasing?
sorry.. which Moore?
Michael Moore and his ghastly movie, “Planet of the Humans,” a hatchet-job on renewable energy.
Good question. I took a stab at it here: http://www.2greenenergy.com/2020/10/17/the-rise-of-climate-denial/
Hi Craig,
Good to see you are still kicking. The video was interesting. It would be so interesting to have a few spare earths to play around with to see what happens, but to the best of our knowledge this is the only world we have so let’s try to take care of it and behave responsibly. I have been encouraged with how RNG is taking off, though I still think that it is amazing that the methane digesters they build manage to run at all since they ignore so many important details.
Yes, RNG really IS taking off. Certainly a good idea when the feedstock is noxious, e.g., forest waste, manure, etc.
Of course we are doomed! Are we not human? Are we not sitting on top of the pyramid of life, alone, depending on all below us for our survival and yet knowing, without humans, the planet would probably do just fine?
Survival is the ability to adapt to change..it’s that or extinction. We are going to die anyway, does anyone really care about the lives of the future generations?
I learned all this when I was ten years old and having been living lightly on the earth ever since. It takes a lot of responsibility. I paid forward on my solar.. such a relief not to pay those bills in the time of COVID. Greywater systems and water barrels keep my gardens feeding me and the bees. I save 25 gallons of water for every 5 gallons of mead I make.. There are others who are better at this than I. There are people re foresting the deserts and rebuilding soils.The youngsters protesting and the elders supporting them are trying to adapt, some will succeed, others will go to the green version of Duke energy or the fracking industry.
Did you know California native peoples speak of a time when it was so dry that people could WALK to the Catalina Islands?
But those that are doing aren’t sitting at tables next to people devoted to not listening,not changing and…not being concerned.
Very well said, Craig!
Let’s hope the big money keeps wising up, and quick, and gets ever more firmly behind the livable future available to us in the fresh new energy delivered daily by the sun, through already proven modern innovation.
One way or another, we will find ourselves unable to continue with a century-old and lethally failing set of technologies that dig up, suck out, and wastefully burn ancient and toxic prehistoric sunshine, to misplace more gigatons of ancient carbon into our modern atmosphere every year.
Observable physical records laid down over millennia within our natural world clearly show that our climate has been stable within one degree for 10,000 years. With our massive and continuing ancient carbon dump, we are shoving the global climate upwards between two and four degrees, already causing massive instability in the biosphere that has so very generously allowed our success in the game of Life.
If we don’t learn to treat our nest with respect, we will more and more suffer the long term effects of the accelerating collapse of environmental systems that provide us with vital natural services. These include atmospheric oxygen, the vital cycle of distillation, purification, and distribution of fresh water as healthy rainfall, as well as our formerly stable weather patterns, fertile soil, and robust fisheries.
We’ll very shortly be looking at human starvation on an unprecedented scale, as well massive and increasingly desperate climate migration, with the attendant chaos and strife. These impacts of our collective decisions and behavior will only drive the potential for the adoption and spread of wise and enduring innovation further from the realm of the possible.
Our time to act is limited, as are our resources, and we must behave accordingly.
I continue to appreciate your ethics, intellect, compassion, your factually informed judgment,and your courage.
Keep on keeping on!
Ever your friend,
Cameron
Well put, and thanks so much for the kind words. As I mentioned here: http://www.2greenenergy.com/2020/10/17/the-rise-of-climate-denial/, this is a terrible time in U.S. history, but we cannot give up.