Obama Administration’s Report on Climate Change Won’t Change Much, But Environmentalists Are Making Progress Anyway
In the few days since the U.S-based report on climate change was published, several people have asked me if I believe the document will mark a turning point in Americans’ attitudes and behaviors on the subject. My response: No. Make that: Hell no.
At the risk of over-simplifying:
• Our media has the majority of Americans convinced that the immediate present is fraught with such danger that worrying about the future is the province of fools.
• Virtually no Americans’ viewpoints are changed by the findings of government. If you already believe in the theory of anthropogenic climate change, which is supported by 97+% of climatologists, you don’t need more support. If, for whatever reason, you don’t believe in the theory, will a report produced by the icky Obama administration turn you around? Of course not. Anything coming from the White House, regardless of its merit, is met with instant rebuke. Here we have yet another study showing that the quality of our environment is steadily deteriorating, and, predictably, it’s immediately attacked by the right wing as an attempt to enslave us with big government.
• As I mentioned in an earlier post, the fossil fuel industry, the most powerful group in the history of humankind, has mobilized its resources to convince voters that renewable energy is a waste of money, a drain on the economy, a job-killer, and part of an anti-capitalist agenda.
These three concepts are proving tough to beat in a world in which Americans are becoming more misinformed with each passing day. That could get us frustrated to the point of apathy – an idea that, incidentally, has Big Energy salivating: the sooner we quit, and cease to care about this, the happier they’ll be.
But quitters we are not. We’re emboldened by the fact that the fossil fuel boys are starting to feel the pinch. In particular, the ever-diminishing costs of solar and wind, the ever-increasing evidence of the damage caused by burning hydrocarbons, and the forward progress of renewables has them on their heels. Wind energy represents almost 5% of the U.S. grid mix, and it’s growing steadily. Also, defections for the grid in favor of solar PV–at both the consumer and commercial level–are at an all-time high.
Successfully engineering a migration away from fossil fuels won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick, but it will happen. And the more horsepower you and I bring to the challenge, the sooner it will occur.
